As tulips bloom, Jammu & Kashmir hopes to harvest a bounty of tourists

Industry, government officials believe region will improve its tourist footfall this year

Jagged streaks of lightning lashed the sky before a cracking roll of thunder brought sheets of rain. Nazir Ahmad Dar looked at the dark cauliflower-shaped clouds that had been threatening to burst any time since morning, and with a lopsided grin, quipped: “This weather sucks”.

Dar, along with other gardeners and government officials, wanted the rain to stop. They had been working tirelessly for weeks readying the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden in Srinagar for the annual Tulip Festival likely to be held on Saturday. The staff feared inclement weather could delay the eagerly awaited festival, which is usually held in late March and marks the opening of Asia’s largest tulip garden. It also officially kicks off the tourist season in Kashmir.

Floriculture officer and in-charge of the Tulip Garden in Srinagar, Javed Masood, says it may be in the last week of March or in the first week of April when the garden will be thrown open for the public.

“This is because of abnormal temperatures this time during winter. January was unusually hot, and now by the end of February, it’s very cold, there is prediction for another wet spell which may delay the opening,” Masood told Business Standard.

This year, the highest 1.7 million tulips of myriad hues – burning red, bright yellow and snow white – will greet visitors at the terraced garden spread over 74 acres on the banks of Dal Lake. There will also be, as English poet William Wordsworth famously wrote, “A host of golden daffodils, beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” Nestled in nature’s bosom, flower carpets, colourfully copious as confetti, may even have what famed Turkish author Elif Shafak described as: “streaks of colour – peach bellinis, orange martinis, strawberry margaritas, frozen negronis.”

“The garden is of huge importance and has become a unique selling point on our tourism landscape. Earlier, fewer tourists visited Kashmir in spring, which, I reckon, is the best season. Tulip Garden has changed that. It has advanced Kashmir’s tourist season by at least a month and given a big boost to the tourism industry,” Masood said.

 

Millions visit region

Last year, a record 370,000 tourists, national and international, visited the garden.

Tourism, which contributes about 7 per cent to J&K’s gross domestic product, provides employment to people working in the hotel, hospitality and transport sectors, besides being a source of livelihood for tour operators, travel agents, and souvenir sellers. It also supports handloom, handicrafts, horticulture, and floriculture departments. Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has been witnessing an upsurge in tourism for the last few years.

Multiple stakeholders – ranging from government officials, trade representatives, hoteliers, tour operators and houseboat owners – told ‘Business Standard’ that there had indeed been an uptick in tourism, and gave several explanations for this surge.

Mudasir Mushtaq, tourist officer at Directorate of Tourism Kashmir, says the Valley has become a peaceful destination.

“We welcomed over 2,700,000 tourists in 2023. And till February end of this year, 375,000 tourists have already arrived in Kashmir. The rise in numbers is mainly because of the peace that has been prevailing here,” he said.

Earlier, the national media blew things out of proportion, and that negative publicity was a huge setback for the industry, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking in Srinagar on March 7, said over 20 million tourists visited J&K in 2023. In January this year, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, at an event in New Delhi, noted a record 21.2 million tourists, including 55,000 foreigners, travelled to J&K last year.

According to official figures, 18 million tourists visited J&K in 2022, up from 11 million a year before. The tourist footfall in Kashmir more than doubled from nearly 1,300,000 in 2016 to over 2,600,000 in 2022, with the number of foreigners growing from over 1,600 in 2021 to nearly 20,000 in 2022.

J&K tourist footfall

Year	Jammu			Kashmir			Tourist vists
	Domestic	Foreign	Total	Domestic	Foreign	Total
2021	10,650,721	36	10,650,757	664,163	1,614	665,777	11,316,534
2022	16,210,837	38	16,210,875	2,288,495	19,947	2,673,442	18,519,317
2023			18,490,000			2,710,000	21,200,000

 Source: Tourism Department, J&K

Tourist arrivals in Kashmir Valley

Year	Domestic	Foreign	Total
2015	898,860	28,950	927,810
2016	1,274,600	21,990	1,296,590
2017	1,196,070	29,540	1,225,610
2018	729,100	57,340	786,440
2019	531,750	33,780	565,530
2020	37,370	3,900	41,270

Source: Tourism Department, J&K

Business booming

Javed Tenga, the president of Kashmir’s apex trade body, Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), attributes the rise in foreign tourist inflow to the government’s aggressive promotion of the sector and the successful hosting of the G20 meeting in Srinagar last year.

“Tourism business has been booming in J&K in the last two years, mainly because of the government’s intervention. Foreigners are again flocking in great numbers to Kashmir,” he said.

The J&K administration has taken a slew of measures to revive the tourism industry which suffered due to decades-long unrest and Covid-19. Going beyond tourist hotspots, it identified 75 new destinations across J&K last year to promote offbeat tourism. The government also opened several sensitive areas - including Keran, Machil, Teetwal, Gurez and Suchetgarh border - to promote border tourism.  Due to the lack of hotels and restaurants in border areas, the villagers have been encouraged to start homestay facilities for tourists, providing them with accommodation and food.

“The border tourism is a win-win initiative. It promotes budget-level tourism and provides economic opportunities for the local youth, while also giving tourists a chance to experience the local culture from close quarters,” said Mudasir.

Pilgrimage destination

The local government also stepped up efforts to boost religious tourism, which comprises a major chunk of the total tourist influx, by promoting new trekking routes. Two Hindu shrines, Vaishno Devi in Jammu and Amarnath in Kashmir, are the main contributors to religious tourism in J&K.

Ajay Salan, Assistant chief executive officer of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, said: “Pilgrims have been visiting in large numbers in the recent past. The footfall has more than doubled”.

Nasir Shah, Chairman Indian Association of Tour Operators – JK Chapter, said the numbers were encouraging but the pilgrims must stay longer and extend their pilgrimage to leisure tourism.

“The government should give freedom to pilgrims, allow them to explore without curbing their movements by imposing unnecessary security restrictions. We are a completely peaceful destination now, and the safest for solo travellers. A solo woman traveller would be as safe in J&K as she is at her home,” he said.

While he lauded the government for putting new places on the tourism map to reduce pressure on popular spots, Shah noted that J&K is an ecologically fragile region and should not be overburdened with tourists.

Manzoor Ahmed Pakhtoon, president of the Houseboat Association of Kashmir, said the Valley’s houseboat owners benefited in the last two years as the easing of Covid-19 curbs and bottled-up travel demand led to an abrupt upswing in tourism. He, however, noted that the government must come up with a comprehensive policy to ensure the houseboats stay afloat.

“From 2,000 houseboats, we are left with 750-800, most of them in low-budget categories. If there’s no financial help from the government, there will be no houseboats in 8-10 years,” he said.

Tourists want to live in houseboats and often talk about the completely different and unique experience they offer as against staying in a five-star hotel, but they demand better facilities, he said. Building a new houseboat costs Rs 4-5 crore and needs two years for completion. The government has put a ban on making new houseboats, citing pollution. To attain permission for the renovation of the existing ones or a nod for licence renewal is a cumbersome bureaucratic process and takes over a year.

Pahalgam Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association (PHROA) president Javed Burza said an unprecedented tourist rush was seen in Pahalgam, a popular tourist destination in Kashmir.

“The Centre and the J&K government have been keen on giving a tremendous push to tourism. We have had excellent bookings of all hotels in Pahalgam in the last two years,” he said.

Burza said the direct rail connectivity between Kashmir and the rest of the country would further bolster tourism in the region, asserting that lack of all-weather road connectivity and high airline fares have been the biggest impediments to the Valley’s tourism and economy.