It is the month of May and Kashmir has never witnessed such low tourist traffic in the past few decades. There are almost no tourists in this holy month of Ramadan visible on the streets of Srinagar. Tourism players are shocked by the attitude of the Central Government and they are right when they say that tourism is also being used against the Kashmiri population by many vested interests in the country.
We are already in the month of May 2019 and there is no visible tourism in Kashmir Valley. Reports from Jammu and Ladakh regions are not healthy either. The decision of the government to postpone assembly elections will take another few months of summer in the security preparation for those polls and tourism will suffer again. They should have held the assembly polls in J&K State simultaneously along with parliamentary elections.
State Administration has launched a major media and promotional campaign for the tourists to travel Jammu and Kashmir State especially Kashmir Valley. J&K Government in the recent past conducted tourism conclave in Mumbai and more such activities were organized in the spring months but without any success. Hundreds of prominent travel agents, tour operators and event management companies from various parts of the country have extended their support to the tourism sector of J&K State only by lip service. The fact remains that all such tourism players are discouraging people to travel to Kashmir Valley.
Despite all these efforts by the Governor’s administration, even in this month of May 2019, there are no tourists in Kashmir Valley, according to the tour operators and other stakeholders. They have blamed the Government for the continued flop of tourist seasons in Kashmir.