Kashmir Witnesses Record Tourist Footfall As Domestic, Foreign Tourists Flock Valley

Kashmir has once more turn out to be the primary alternative of worldwide vacationers. Over 15 thousand overseas vacationers have visited the Kashmir Valley within the first six months of 2023. While the variety of vacationers coming to Kashmir has damaged all earlier information, on the identical time, overseas vacationers have stored their date with Kashmir its all-time excessive arrival of overseas vacationers within the Valley within the final three a long time. In 2022, the whole variety of overseas vacationers who visited the Kashmir Valley was round 4,000. The authorities is hopeful that each one the earlier information of overseas vacationers visiting Kashmir Valley could be damaged. 

“After many years, this is a positive development for the tourism of Jammu and Kashmir. In this year, we have already reached 15 and a half thousand foreign tourists who come from various countries across the world into Jammu and Kashmir. We are hoping that the number of foreign tourists will be far more than what we had last year. This is a very positive development, and I am very sanguine that the G20 event which was held in Srinagar in the last week of May will go a long way in increasing the foreign tourists rush and we are seeing a lot of queries and bookings that have been made from various countries,” mentioned Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, Secretary Tourism. 

The authorities of Jammu and Kashmir hosted a G20 assembly in May. Ambassadors and overseas delegates from round 17 international locations participated in these conferences with a give attention to tourism. The authorities is hopeful that G20 conferences held in Srinagar would translate into extra promotion of Kashmir tourism the world over. The numbers have already crossed all of the earlier information and the federal government can be planning on doing worldwide promotions, particularly in Southeast Asian, Middle East and North American international locations. 

Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, Secretary of Tourism, added, “Promotion of tourism is a very dynamic task undertaken by the Department of tourism in Jammu and Kashmir. We are not following previous methods of promotion., with changing times it’s also important to department and intervention by way of promotion change, this is the era of digital marketing, this is the era of online marketing. We are doing that, and we are starting virtual tours. We are doing airline promotions so that frequent flyers can be attracted. We believe that southeast Asian countries are a huge market for us, and we are focusing on that. The Middle East is a core focus area and a target too. The Northern American continent is a very important aspect of our promotional.”

Kashmir has been one of many favorite locations of overseas vacationers within the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. With the beginning of the insurgency, the numbers fell drastically and with peace returning to the Kashmir Valley, the overseas vacationers are but once more getting drawn to Paradise on Earth. 

“Kashmir is different and it has a good environment and people are extremely friendly. It is crazily nice. I heard Kashmir has had a huge number of Korean tourists visiting. I wish a lot of Koreans would come back to India and Kashmir,” mentioned Lin, a Tourist from Korea.

Kashmir this 12 months is witnessing an enormous tourism increase with round 10 lakh home and overseas vacationers visiting the Union Territory within the first six months.