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| Sky rocketing, air fares dampening tourism in J&K | | |
Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, May 29: Exorbitant airfares are proving a deterrent for the potential tourists as the tourist seasons is peaking up in the valley and other parts of the state.
The excessive charging goes unchecked and unabated and the Government of India's Civil Aviation Department has turned a blind eye towards this and
it has also escaped the attention of the state tourism department. Airfare from Delhi to Srinagar is 17000 per passenger per side while as fare from Jammu to Srinagar is 14500. Similarly, Airfare from Delhi to ladakh is 13000.
The Civil Aviation department seems totally cold and unconcerned to these unreasonable fares which discourage the tourists from coming to the state.
It is pertinent to mention that in 2014, eleven lakh domestic tourists visited Jammu and Kashmir out of which 50000 were foreigners. The government had eyed ten percent and twenty percent growth in the flow of tourists in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Officials in the tourism department said that this year the state government has lined up many interesting activities for attracting tourists, but he said in case the overcharging by the airlines is not checked, tourists would get discouraged, as this may go beyond their budget.
The stakeholders said that by increasing airfares to Srinagar unreasonably, the airlines were breaking the back of Kashmir tourism industry.
"One can understand increase in airfares for a month or so, but right from March the airfares are touching sky thus depriving large number of tourists from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkatta and other cities to visit Kashmir," said Kursheed Ahmad a travel agent.
He said the airlines were charging anywhere between Rs 15000 to Rs 17000 from Delhi and Srinagar and at these fares, thousands of tourists who otherwise would have come to Kashmir prefer to go to foreign destinations like Singapore, Dubai and Malaysia,"
"During peak tourism season in Goa (December and January) no such rise in airfares is seen and tourists easily go there on modest airfares. But when it comes to Kashmir the rates are being increased so steeply that it becomes unaffordable for the tourists to come here," he said.
According to stakeholders Kashmir which does not have the train connectivity with rest of the country, a local patient or student, travelling from Delhi or Jammu or for that matter from any other place in India to Kashmir, has no alternative but to come by air. "The steep airfares make it extremely difficult for them to afford the journey," they said.
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