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| Tourism players worried over shutdown politics | | |
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Feb 12: With the tourism industry getting ready for the new season, people associated with this sector are worried over the prevailing situation in the Valley.
They believe the present disturbance in the wake of shutdown calls by separatists could have an adverse impact on the tourism sector.
The separatists have called for shutdown on February 13 and 14. "They have been giving such shutdown calls since last year. We are really worried about the tourism season," a hotelier Fayaz Ahmad said. "We don't know what will happen in this season. We are receiving a huge booking of tourists but shutdown calls are really making us worried," a travel agent Mohammad Shafi said. "These separatists are running a huge business across the globe but make the poor people suffer by giving shutdowns," he added. Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Mailk called for a complete shutdown to protest and resist this "viscous move" and threatened a mass agitation if any adverse order is announced.
The tourism sector is one of the primary sources of revenue generation for the state.
"The cancellations of tourists who were willing to visit the Valley have increased for the past few days," John Mohammad, who runs a travel agency, said.
He said the disturbance in Kashmir become a boon for the neighboring states of J&K. "The enquiries for the coming month look bleak as tourists want to see how the situation will remain. If the situation will continue for some more time, then it will be a huge setback for the tourism industry here," Mohammad said.
The present situation is giving us sleepless nights to Mohammad Sharif, who is a sumo driver. "We are apprehensive what will happen this year. We won't be able to feed the family if the prevailing situation continuous," Sharif said.
He said the tourism industry gets worst affected whenever there is any law and order problem in the Valley. |
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