With the second Covid-19 wave abating, Jammu and Kashmir administration and Kashmir’s tourism stakeholders are looking forward to a renewed inflow of tourists. There is hope for a bumper tourist season like the one from November 2020 to March 2021 that followed the end of the first wave. Thousands flew in monthly over these five months leading to the occupation of almost all hotel rooms in Gulmarg and Srinagar.
The data shared by the tourism department suggest that 1.13 lakh tourists arrived in Kashmir during the period, a figure that the then union tourism minister Prahlad Singh Patel told the parliament at the time had broken the record of the past 16 years. A part of the reason that the tourists visited Kashmir in large numbers was the ban on international travel due to the pandemic. Besides, the snow, a novelty for most Indians, and Kashmir’s reputation as “a paradise on earth.” drew visitors from across India.
FOOTFALLS AND COVID19
While the tourist arrivals gave a boost to Kashmir’s economy following two years of a slump due in large part to the prevailing political turmoil and the Covid-19 lockdown, people also blamed the advent of the second wave in the Valley to the unchecked footfalls. And this was true to a large extent. The alarming rise in Covid-19 infections through April and May was traced to mutated strains of the virus detected in states like Maharashtra. According to an official estimate then, the travellers and tourists who arrived in Jammu and Kashmir during the first three weeks of April accounted for 35 per cent of the total infections recorded in the region during the period.
This story is from the July 17, 2021 edition of Kashmir Life.
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This story is from the July 17, 2021 edition of Kashmir Life.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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