Tourism to rebellion-torn Kashmir has surged amid moves to end the insurgency racking the scenic Himalayan state and officials are optimistic the number of visitors will climb still further.
"The atmosphere is changing fast," said Balbeer Mayar, head of the Travel Agents Association of India, said. "We'll definitely bring more tourists to this place in the coming months."
Tourism used to be a major money-spinner for the idyllic state of snow-capped mountains and flowering valleys about which Mughal Emperor Babar once wrote, "If there is a paradise on earth, then it is here, it is here, it is here in Kashmir."
But after Muslim separatists took up arms against New Delhi's occupation in late 1989, the flow of tourists dried up. Now, however, amid cautious steps by nuclear rivals India and Pakistan to end their enmity after nearly going to war over Kashmir in 2002, visitors are coming back, latest figures show.
Tourist arrivals climbed nearly eight-fold in 2003 to 183,706. Foreign tourist arrivals climbed to around 8,000 from 2,500.
The numbers are still small compared to the more than 700,000 Indian and foreign tourists who visited the cool, green heights of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1989 when the uprising was just starting.
Even so, puppet Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, who has vowed to use a "healing touch" to bring peace to the state, said the increase in visitors, especially in the number of foreign ones, is a good sign.
Despite travel warnings by foreign governments to their citizens not to visit Kashmir, "they're still coming," the chief minister said, adding he was working to get the advisories lifted.
State officials say the state is safe for tourists despite almost daily gun-battles between rebels and security forces and frequent attacks by militants on Indian military and other targets in which civilians often die.
At least 40,000 people have died in separatist-related violence, officials say, while separatists put the toll at between 80,000 and 100,000.
In 1995 the abduction of six Westerners cast a dark cloud over the tourism industry. One American managed to flee but kidnappers beheaded a Norwegian and the four others - an American, two Britons and a German - are presumed dead. Also in the mid-1990s, suspected rebels killed six Indian tourists. Since then, however, no tourists have died.
The move toward better relations between India and Pakistan since Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee launched what he called a final bid for peace in his lifetime has bolstered optimism about the future of the region, at the heart of half a century of hostility between the neighbours.
With an eye on the upcoming tourist season, the administration is working to clean up sewage in Dal Lake, the main attraction of the state's summer capital, Srinagar, where many tourists stay on its famed houseboats.
As well, the airport at Srinagar is being upgraded and hopes international planes will soon be allowed to land. And ski facilities also are being improved.
Officials say they hope the second phase of a French-built cable-car project connecting Kongdoori, a bowl-shaped valley and Afarwat peak, one of the highest in Asia at an altitude of 14,500 feet (4,390 meters), will be ready in April and draw even more visitors.
"Once the second phase is ready, it will expose fabulous slopes to ski lovers," says Khurshid Mir, head of Kashmir chapter's Indian Institute of Mountaineering and Skiing. "We'll see a rush of skiers next season."
Pawan Khanna, a tour operator from New Delhi, said he believed tourism was important to restoring stability in the restive region.
"The situation has changed a lot. We all have to carry this momentum forward," he told AFP. "Tourism is the greatest normalising factor."
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