White winter raises hope for J&K tourism

Kashmir witnesses rise in tourist footfall.

A boatman steers his boat at the partially frozen Dal Lake after a snowfall in Srinagar on January 9, 2021.

Unlike most people, six feet of snow and the thermometer at minus 10 degrees Celsius is no cause for worry for Asif Iqbal Burza. The hotelier, who owns the Heaven Resorts in Gulmarg, north Kashmir’s ski capital , is in fact overjoyed.

For the first time in 15 months, Mr. Burza is happy to re-employ staff whom he had to lay off in the wake of the August 5, 2019 move to end J&K’s special status . As did some 1,500 other hotels in the Kashmir Valley.

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“We had to stop hiring services such as security, laundry and transport. We retained a bare minimum staff and negotiated their salaries. We all understood it was going to be a long haul. However, it seems the good days are back. Gulmarg witnessed a very, very good season in the past two months. My hotel, like others, was booked for December and January,” he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also proved a blessing as it has forced hoteliers to hire more staff. “We won’t mind hiring more people as long as tourists keep a tryst with Kashmir,” Mr. Burza added.

The current fillip to tourism is the first silver lining for the moribund hospitality industry in Kashmir, first battered by the post-August 5 shutdown and then dented further by the pandemic-induced lockdown. According to the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries, around 65,000 people lost jobs in the tourism sector post August 5, with the industry suffering a loss of ₹2,615 crore.

The latest footfall figures from the J&K Tourism Department show that the popular destination, though mired in bouts of unrest, has retained its hold over visitors from the country and abroad. “Out of the 34,025 tourists who visited Kashmir this year, 3,808 were foreign tourists. December recorded the highest number of 13,237 tourists, which is 39% of the total footfall in the entire year,” said Ahsan Chisti, Deputy Director of the publicity wing of the Tourism Department.

 

The trajectory of the tourism graph is showing a rising trend. From just 186 tourists arriving in the whole of July and 284 in August, 6,327 visited in November. In a surge, the Valley saw around 2,100 tourists arriving just on December 23 and 24, ahead of the New Year.

“We are witnessing a healthy footfall of 700 to 1000 tourists arriving in Kashmir per day for the past many days,” Mr. Chisti said.

It’s for the first time since 2013 that Gulmarg, which has a bed capacity of 1200-plus, is sold out for two months.

The first sun rise of 2021 seems to have brought a ray of hope for tourism. Besides hoteliers, sledge drawers, horse owners, ski trainers and all-terrain vehicle owners, all have all seen good demand.

“The tourist trend is also showing that spenders and not just budget tourists are arriving in Gulmarg. We saw mostly three star and four star hotels getting booked first. People who felt trapped due to COVID pandemic, are finding Gulmarg a safe destination to visit,” Mukhtar Shah, president of the Gulmarg Hoteliers Club, said.

Gulmarg Gondola, the country’s highest cable car, closed for around six months for failing to do any business, reopened in October last year, and has started ferrying 600 to 800 tourists every day up to an altitude of 3,950 metres.

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“We have set up special snow-clearance vehicles to rescue tourists who often get stuck due to snowfall, while travelling towards Gulmarg. Despite the recent heavy snowfall, we ensured that electricity supply remains uninterrupted so that no tourist faces any inconvenience,” Inam ul Haq, Chief Executive Officer, Gulmarg, said.

Khelo India

Buoyed by the tourist footfall, the J&K administration will organise winter games, under the ‘Khelo India’ programme, from February 11-16 at Gulmarg.

“The winter games will require 600 rooms. We are discussing how to arrange accommodation given to the prior bookings,” Mr. Shah said.

Kashmir, which remains a troubled spot, may see its tourism sector back on track but still faces challenges to match the figures of 2013, when more than 11 lakh tourists visited the Valley.

“Of 55,000 hotel beds available in the entire Kashmir Valley, 35,000 beds, mostly of budget hotels. continue to remain on the verge of closure. Scores of hotels have already shut,” said Nasir Shah, chairman of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (J&K Chapter).

“We are getting queries of tourists for spring and summer too but not on the scale it used to be,” he added.

Mr. Shah said tourism has been a conflict neutral sector in Kashmir and should remain so.

“Kashmir remains a safe place for tourists. The COVID numbers are coming down due to the government measures. We are hopeful of continuation of this healthy trend, which has potential to break the previous record,” Mr. Shah, buoyed by the trends, said.