Srinagar: Hopes of a tourism revival in Kashmir are getting dashed as tourists have started cancelling their bookings due to the coronavirus scare.
Tourism operators and associations in Kashmir said they were expecting more than three lakh tourists in the months of March and April.
Nasir Ahmad Shah, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Pilgrim and Leisure Tour Operator Forum, told Kashmir Reader that they were expecting tourists in March and April from Malaysia, South Africa, Indonesia and many other countries.
“But due to the coronavirus, almost all bookings have been cancelled,” Shah rued.
“We are already suffering since August, but somehow we had been able to attract tourists through advertisements. Now in this situation we cannot do anything. We have to face losses to protect Kashmir from this virus. If this virus spreads here, it will be impossible to control as we don’t have much infrastructure or modern technology,” Shah said.
Last year, due to the lockdown in the valley that began in the first week of August, tourism industry suffered heavy losses. As per official figures, in July 2019 Kashmir received 152,525 tourists but in August only 10,130 tourists arrived, most of them in the first few days of the month. This number fell to 4,562 in September and only in November rose a little to 12,086.
Since the coronavirus has spread across countries, there has been again a drop in arrivals. As against 6,954 tourist arrivals in December last year, there were a mere 3,792 in January.
“At present, there are a very small number of tourists in the valley, and they, too, are leaving. Last year, people from the now coronavirus-hit countries, including China, Thailand, Korea, Hong Kong, United States and Indonesia, formed the biggest chunk of foreign arrivals in Kashmir,” Shah said.
Shamima Ahmad Shah, owner of a tour and travel company, said, “Almost 99 percent bookings have been cancelled, which include bookings for April. We anticipate this to happen for the month of May as well, if this scare continues. We were suffering for the last six months due to the situation and now this has happened. It is a very difficult time for tourism operators.”
Hotels in Gulmarg have also started receiving requests for cancellation. The manager of a vintage hotel in Gulmarg said that “today, within 10 minutes, we had to cancel 10 bookings”.
“For the month of March we had 571 bookings, out of which we have cancelled 166. For the month of April we had 305 bookings, of which we have cancelled almost 100,” the manager said.
Apart from hotels, people who earn their livelihood from tourism are also facing losses. There are about 11,000 registered pony wallas in Gulmarg, Sonamarg and Pahalgam. There are about 5,000 shikara wallas in Srinagar. There are almost 2,100 sledge wallas in Gulmarg and more than 1,300 tourist guides in these three places.

NAZIMA SIDIQ