Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 8: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said that he is thrilled with renewed tourist arrivals in Kashmir in the aftermath of strife that followed execution of Parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru in February this year.
While referring to the law and order problem in the State after Guru’s hanging and burial in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, Omar in his tweet on the mirco-blogging website, twitter said: “After everything we’ve been through since 9th of Feb, if tourists are returning to Valley I have every reason to be thrilled.”
Chief Minister in his tweet said: “A friend called to complain that flights to Srinagar and hotels in Srinagar were too expensive. While I sympathised with him, I’m thrilled.”
Omar, however, said that while the boom in tourism is likely to boost the earnings of those connected with the hospitality industry, the State Government would earn very little from it. “The Government earns next to nothing from tourism but the trickle down from the sector is enormous. So please keep coming,” he tweeted.
According to figures of the Department of Tourism so far 1.36 lakh tourists visited Kashmir valley this year. A tourism official said that tourist rush is picking up and between 2500-3000 tourists visit Kashmir daily for past over a week.
Kashmir’s famed Tulip garden had 55,000 visitors since it was thrown open 13 days ago. The Project Manager of the Tulip garden, Javed Shah told Excelsior that the visitors to the Tulip garden are increasing day by day. He said that 4,000 tourists visited to the garden today and bloom this year is excellent.
As many as 32 flights operate daily from Srinagar airport these days to fly tourists in and out of the Valley. The airlines have decided to start evening flights to the Valley in near future to tackle the tourist rush.
Kashmir Valley witnessed a boom in tourism in the last two years. Around 13.5 lakh tourist visited Kashmir last year after two years of peaceful summer following summer unrest for three consecutive years in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
This year the industry is heading for big boom given the peaceful situation in the valley for the last two years. But Guru’s execution led to the massive cancellations of tourists in February and March this year. After the return of peace for last few weeks tourist arrivals have increased.
This year the Tourism Department is expecting 14.5 lakh visitors to Kashmir valley.
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