High on hope: J&K Tourism Board invite more tourists to Valley after return of peace
High on hope: J&K Tourism Board invite more tourists to Valley after return of peace
By Ankur Bhattacharya
Kolkata, June 09 (HS): Describing Jammu and Kashmir as ‘one of the safest and most tourist friendly destinations, particularly for women’, tourism officials from this Northernmost state expect a considerable jump in the number of tourists during the holiday seasons.
“Last year we welcomed more than 6,50,000 tourists from across the country and abroad, and this year we are confident that many more people would visit the state in an absolute free and safest manner without paying any heed to some reports in a section of media about violence and unrest”, said Ahsan Ul Haq, Station Head of Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Board and Nazir Ahmed Mir, President, Kashmir Tour Operators Association during an interactive session here.
Stating that the number of tourists from West Bengal were among the highest in Jammu and Kashmir in almost every year with more than 250,000 tourists visited the state last year alone without caring for any violence, they said this year they were expecting at least 3,00,000 tourists would come and visit the state and the valley which was being considered to be heavenly in terms of its natural beauty and unparalleled topography anywhere in the world.
To queries from Hindusthan Samachar both Haq and Mir said that though Maharashtra and Gujarat accounted for the highest number of tourists in Jammu, Kashmir valley and Ladakh regions, the visitors from Bengal did not lag far behind them to take the third spot in terms of the number of domestic visitors and their number had been growing each year.
About the number of foreign tourists in the state, in spite of some negative publicity about their security in some countries, both the officials said, attracted by its unmatched scenic beauty, last year as many 2,00,000 foreigners came to the Kashmir valley and Ladakh and stayed for about a week on an average.
“We are also expecting a jump in their numbers too with tourists from Malaysia, Bangladesh, China and several other South Asian countries coming in large numbers”, they said.
Once again claiming that Jammu and Kashmir as one of the safest regions for tourists including the solo women travellers, both Haq and Mir referred to the recent newspaper report of the death of a tourist guide in a bid to save a group of visitors, and said “we are also among the most hospitable people of the world”.
But when their attention was drawn towards the recent incidents of skirmishes with the Security forces, they claimed in unison that such incidents had nothing to do with the daily life of Kashmiri people and had been happening only in some pockets in the border regions. “No tourist has ever been killed in such incidents as we protect them with our own life”, they reiterated and urged the people to come and visit their beautiful state in larger numbers.
