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| Amarnath protests take a toll on tourism sector | | | Early Times Reporter
Srinagar | July 20
Violent protests over the Amarnath land transfer row has severely dented tourism sector in Jammu and Kashmir with a substantial dip in visitors to the state during the seasonal months of June and July. "We don't want to go into numbers, there was a temporary phase when tourists kept away from the state, particularly the valley, for obvious reasons," Director Tourism Farooq Ahmad Shah said.
The Tourism department has launched a campaign and organised certain cultural events in the Kashmir valley to woo the tourists back. "We are on the job, trying to woo the tourists back," Shah said. Kashmir valley and Jammu region were severely affected by violent protests for and against the transfer of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board in the last week of June and first week of July.
The violence and its wide media publicity led to massive cancellation of bookings of air tickets, hotels, houseboats and programmes by tour operators. "Before the agitation, we had a packed schedule up to end of September. But things changed overnight and nearly 90 per cent of the bookings were gone by the time, the agitation have ended," said Mohammad Ilyas, a tour operator.
He said the losses were massive for him as he lost the security deposit he had put with the hotels and taxi operators based on the bookings he had received from his customers. Ahmad rued that the tourism sector had lost bulk of the business because of the agitation. |
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