Incessant dry weather conditions sans snowfall is distracting tourists and also triggering them cancelling their trip plans to Kashmir and other snow-bound areas like Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
“There have been about 70% cancellations in the month of January and a huge number of tourists have put their plan of visit to Kashmir on hold,” Rayees Ahmad one the local travel agents said.
Most of the ski lovers who have planned their stay in the resorts of Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonmarg have cancelled their bookings.
“If there is heavy snowfall, many foreign tourists who visit for skiing will come as they have deferred their plans for time being” said Rouf Tramboo who is heading Travel Agents Association of Kashmir.
As people of Kashmir are waiting for rains and snow, the tourist industry is waiting for its fingers crossed as half of the winter season is over.
Moreover, there is little hope that tourist season will gain pace this winter.
Even the Bollywood film crews have put their shooting schedules on hold as they used to shoot their songs amid snow in Kashmir.
Though the tourism department held a tourist festival in the summers to promote Bangus Valley, the area is not prepared for the winters for the tourists to stay and enjoy the snowy landscapes of this valley.
The tour operators are not happy with the dry weather conditions in Kashmir valley as cancellations have jumped in the past two weeks as most of the intended tourists are cancelling their visit to Kashmir just a few days before their visit.
Kashmir Hoteliers Club, an amalgam of hotel associations, recently told media in Srinagar that they have only 20% to 25% of occupancy in the hotels at Gulmarg, Pahalgam and other places of Kashmir.
With the Meteorological Department predicting snow and rains in the last week of January, there have been reports of rains and snow in some high-altitude areas of Kashmir like Sonmarg, Gulmarg, Peer Ki Gali on the Mughal Road and Sinthan Top.
However, Bangus Valley of Kupwara is the only tourist destination with huge snow cover as a winter delight for the tourists who are keen to see the snow while they visit Kashmir valley.
Those tourists who have retained their bookings and are coming to Kashmir are being encouraged to go for less visited but snow-capped places like Sinthan Top, Mughal Road above Shopian in South Kashmir and the snow bound Bangus Valley of Kupwara near the Line of Control in North Kashmir.
Bangus Valley, Peer ki Gali on Mughal Road and Sinthan Top are the few areas in Kashmir which are snowbound.
Bangus Valley which is about 50 kilometers from Handwara town of Kupwara district witnessed a lot of snowfall in the months of November and December 2023 and has a huge white snow blanket over it.
Similarly, a lot of tourists are visiting Sinthan Top area in South Kashmir to see the snow.
As a matter of fact, these places are grappling with issues like adequate infrastructure and other amenities to cater for a large influx of the tourists.
“It has about 2 to 4 ft of snow and has a lot of snow peaks around. But there is no infrastructure for the tourists to stay” said Amir Ahmad who visited along with a few groups of tourists to Bangus Valley in the past week.