Good Tourism

Over the last few years, Kashmir has witnessed a tremendous growth in tourism. If we go by the government figures, since 2021, over 4 crore tourists have visited the union territory. The fresh data announced by the Centre has pegged the tourist numbers visiting the Valley at one crore by June this year. Speaking in Rajya Sabha in the recent monsoon session, the Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, attributed the growth in the sector to the abrogation of Article 370, which, he said, had helped bring peace to the region.

According to Rai, a total of 1,08,41,009 tourists visited J&K till June. In previous years, the numbers were 34,70,834 in 2020, 1,13,14,884 in 2021, 1,88,64,332 in 2022, and 2,11,24,874 in 2023.  This has increased tourism's contribution to the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) from 7.84 percent in 2019-20 to 8.47 percent in 2022-23. The tourism sector forms 6.8 percent of Kashmir's GDP and employs 2 million people. The sector, as such, has the potential to shore up the union territory’s beleaguered economy.

That said, it is also important to understand that the region’s fragile ecology may not be able to endure the ever higher number of tourist arrivals. More visitors will mean more tourism related infrastructure in a small place like the Valley.  New roads, hotels, eateries, recreational facilities etc in the already congested tourist resorts and building of fresh ones at the newly chosen sites would wreak havoc with the hitherto pristine beauty of the place.

Hence the urgent need for some regulating tourism, without adversely impacting its economic utility for the Valley. To start with, we need to diversify the tourism portfolio and mitigate the risk of over-dependence on traditional tourist spots such as Srinagar, Gulmarg, and Pahalgam, which get the bulk of tourists.

Sustainability in tourism is a must: it involves not just preserving the natural environment but also maintaining the cultural and social fabric of the region. It is hoped that both the Lieutenant Governor's administration and the new elected government would pay attention to the need to not just sustain the tempo of the ongoing tourism but also take steps to make it environmentally sustainable.