Another summer of hope

“Maine yahaan iss sey bhi khubsoorat din dekhey hain jab yaahan filmi log aatey thhey magar itna paisa tab bhi nahi milta tha (Even when film crews used to shoot regularly in Kashmir I did not earn as much money as I did last year),” says Ismail.
 

The J&K government has fixed an hourly rate of Rs 300 for a shikara ride. “That's quite good,” says Ismail, who owns two houseboats. Son Ashiq Hussain rows the other shikara. The septuagenarian expects his houseboats to be busy in 2012 as well. 
 

Following three consecutive summers of unrest, the Valley saw the best-ever tourist season in 2011: over 13 lakh visitors, including  32,000 foreigners. Such numbers have never been registered before.
 

Kashmir was rocked by violence in 2010. More than 120 people, mostly youngsters, were killed by securitymen in the span of a few months. 
 

Besides leisure tourists, 10 million pilgrims visited J&K to pay obeisance at the shrines of Vaishnodevi and Amarnath last year. The Ladakh division, which was hit by devastating floods after a cloudburst that killed 193 people, including five foreign tourists, in 2010, also received a record number of tourists in 2011 – about 180,000 people. 
 

In 1989, when militancy erupted in Kashmir, the state had received seven lakh tourists. The inflow of visitors declined year on year since then. In 1995, when five foreign tourists were abducted from Pahalgam, 100 km from Srinagar, western nations issued travel advisories restraining their citizens from travelling to Kashmir. 
 

The beheaded body of one of the abducted persons was recovered a few days later. To this day, it isn’t known what happened to the remaining four hostages. Al-Faran, a little known terrorist outfit, had claimed responsibility for the abduction. 
 

Enthused by the dramatic spike in tourist inflow, the state government and common Kashmiris are gearing up for another bumper year. “We expect better days ahead. We are fully prepared to handle an even more vibrant tourist season,” says Nawang Rigzin Jora, J&K tourism minister. 
 

"Germany withdrew its negative travel advisory last year. We are working to convince other countries to follow suit,” adds Jora, who was recently in Jeddah as part of a high-level Indian tourism official team sent to attract Arabs to Indian destinations. 
 

The state tourism department is placing special emphasis on adventure tourism. Heli-skiing facilities in particular have been beefed up. Skiers are being ferried to snow-bound peaks by helicopters. About 700 trained skiers (more than double compared to last year) have approached officials for registration for heli-sking. "We have already started heli-skiing in Gulmarg, and we will get going in Pahalgam and Sonmarg as well,” says Jora.  
 

The tourism minister adds: “We are also improving the infrastructure for white-water rafting on Sindh and Lidder Rivers. The government is working to explore many more tourist destinations in the Valley so that more guests can be accommodated.”