WHILE the winter and the attendant snowfall create many hardships for people in the Valley, on the tourism front, things start looking up. In the famous health resorts of Gulmarg and Pahalgam, the snow has drawn tourists in droves. The high altitude areas and the famous tourist resorts have been receiving snow since December. According to tourism department figures, the hotels in Gulmarg are booked till March. At 8,960 feet, Gulmarg, Kashmir’s wonderland of snow, is receiving a good number of tourists. According to the tourism department, the occupancy of the hotels in the famous hill resort is full. The hoteliers are upbeat, so is the tourism department.
Snowfall is a boon for tourism. It is important for its novelty for the ninety-nine percent of more than a 1.4 Indians, so they look forward to visit Kashmir in winter. The tourism department is also organizing national winter games at Gulmarg from February 10 under the ”Khelo India” initiative. The big sporting event is projected to draw over 1500 participants. Anurag Thakur, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, and Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor of J&K, recently inaugurated the Third Khelo India National Winter Games Anthem, Mascot, and Jersey. They termed Gulmarg a “Sports City,” saying the resort would be able to welcome the largest number of 1500 players from across the country. The event promotes winter sports such as skiing, Alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, snow rugby, ice stock sport, snow baseball, climbing, snowshoe running, ice hockey, figure skating, and speed skating. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2021 virtually inaugurated the second edition of the games.
The tourism department has also made tremendous efforts to bring tourists back to Kashmir. The J&K Tourism Department participated in this year’s Outbound Travel Mart in Mumbai as part of its nationwide tourism promotional campaign. Thousands of holidaymakers, travel traders and tour organizing professionals thronged the J&K pavilion. The Jammu and Kashmir administration anticipates a 15-20 percent year-on-year increase in visitors to the Union Territory in 2023 and has planned 75 alternative destinations to lower footfalls at the most popular attractions.
More than 20 lakh tourists, including 3.65 lakh Amarnath yatris and over ten thousand foreigners, visited Kashmir during 2022. The Tourism department has said that an advertising campaign across major Indian cities and the opening of new destinations have helped. The UT government has also increased the options for tourists by developing more resorts. For example, Aharbal, Yusmarg, Tosamaidan, Gurez, historic old city in Srinagar, are finding a prominent place on the tourist map of Kashmir. These places need further development of tourist infrastructure and also wider publicity for people to visit. So current year could be hoped to bring more tourists to the Valley.
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