Flower bedecked, Kashmir looks to a tourist boom

The first week of April traditionally marks the beginning of Spring tourism in Kashmir

Srinagar: After losing its peak autumn tourist season last year due to unprecedented floods, Kashmir is bedecked with flowers to receive tourists this year. The good news is that tourists are already arriving here in encouraging numbers.

In the first week of April, which traditionally marks the beginning of Spring tourism in Kashmir, 10,000 tourists arrived here, an official said. "This also includes about 4,000 foreign tourists," another official at the Foreigners' Registration Office said in this Jammu and Kashmir summer capital.

The early spring arrivals are encouraging given the fact that rains in late March and early April had almost brought back the horror of last September's floods.

"It was just water-logging that had been given unnecessary hype by the media outside the state. This damaged our tourism prospects," Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed told reporters while throwing open to visitors Asia's largest Tulip Garden here on April 6.

Despite the media hype of spring floods in Kashmir, tourism players are optimistic about increased inflows. "Nearly 60 percent of our bookings for this month were cancelled due to the fear of floods. The media should have acted responsibly. They created unnecessary hype as if the entire Kashmir was flooded," Muhammad Azim Toman of the Houseboat Owners Association here said. Houseboat owners are now ready to receive guests after sprucing up their vessels with paint and polish. "We have completed repair work of houseboats. Now, the government should vigorously work for attracting tourists in Kashmir," Toman added. Hoteliers and travel operators echoed similar views. "The media hype created fear-psychosis among potential tourists. April and May are important months for tourist flow in Kashmir as most of our bookings for the year happen in these months", Tariq Habib, sales and marketing manager of Hotel Vintage in Gulmarg, said.

Omar Nabi, a tour and travel operator, said most of the bookings for April were cancelled.

"Last year, this season, we had 80-90 percent bookings. But this month we had just five-eight percent bookings", Nabi said.

Farooq Ahmad Shah, Kashmir's tourism director, said: "A negative message went out due to the false media reports about floods in the Valley when it was just water-logging. Our premier tourist destinations were not affected even in last year's floods."