The J&K govt has set a goal to ensure over 2 crore tourist arrivals in the current season.
SRINAGAR: Right from the winter months, Kashmir valley is witnessing a healthy footfall of tourists and in the current spring season, there is record breaking rush of tourists with a lot of occupancy of hotels and houseboats.
On Thursday, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said that his government has set a goal to ensure over 2 crore tourist arrivals in Jammu and Kashmir in the current season. It is in place to mention that the figures available have shown 1.88 crore tourists visited Jammu and Kashmir during previous year.
Due to the arrival of film crews along with many South film units, thousands of people connected to the tourist trade directly or indirectly are brimming with happiness and hope that the more arrivals will bring them out of economic depression.
“If the tourist arrivals remain as they are today, we are going to have a record breaking tourist season. We are happy that we can pay back the debts piled up during the several lean tourist seasons here,” said Ghulam Mustafa, one of the hotel owners in Gulmarg. In the early spring season here when the Tulip Garden was thrown open for the visitors, tourists and locals, the figures available with J&K government said that 3.75 lakh people visited the Tulip Garden this season.
The shooting crews are busy in Gulmarg, Sonmarg and other parts of Kashmir valley and more crews are expected to these locations to shoot songs and film scenes.
“We are expecting at least the dozen of crews in the coming weeks to go to Sonmarg as they are very keen to shoot with visible snow around,” said Lateef Ahmad Manager of a prominent hotel in Sonmarg. In the Sonmarg valley bollywood star Sharukh Khan has been shooting for his forthcoming film Dunki and the pictures and some of the videos while he is going for the shoot are viral on social media platforms.
Senior officials of J&K Tourism Department have appreciated the coming of bollywood crews to Kashmir valley for the shoot as it sends a positive message to the rest of the film crews to come here and complete their projects. The J & K government has already introduced a new film policy by virtue of which all the shooting crews get a single window clearance for the shooting of their films at all the places they like in Kashmir.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha while appreciating the film crews coming for the shooting to Kashmir valley told media on Thursday, “over 300 films were shot in Kashmir last year, and the number will go up this year”. In order to get the foreign tourist traffic back to Kashmir valley, the J & K administration has a lot of hope for the G20 tourism meeting which is being held in Srinagar in the coming month of May.
“When the event would be held here, it would be a global event and would get a lot of international media coverage that Kashmir is a safe tourist destination,” Faz Lul Haseeb, the outgoing Director Tourism Kashmir, told this newspaper.