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| Western countries unwilling to lift travel advisories due to Kashmir | | ‘Major setback to tourism’ | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 2 : Jammu and Kashmir is known world wide for its beautiful landscapes and the nature’s bounty. But still the state is not able to fetch that much tourism as the western countries are unwilling to lift travel advisories.
Jammu and Kashmir has given up its efforts to press western countries to lift travel advisories from J&K, as with Kashmir on boil every summer, it has become difficult for them to convince these countries.
Sources said that though State Tourism Department has been organizing number of programmes in many western capitals to show the changing face of Kashmir, but it has been overshadowed by the cycle of summer violence which engulfs the valley during the peak tourism season since 2008.
Even the plan of the government to get security clearance to open up closed trekking tracks has not met with success. Advisories project our state as conflict prone region and in view of these it is difficult for group tourism to move to these places as no insurance company will cover any travel to these areas.
“In simple terms western governments have asked their nationals not to travel to Kashmir”, said a senior officer on condition of anonymity.
“Arrival of foreigners have increased in past few years and efforts are being made to attract more to this state”, he said.
It is pertinent to mention here that several western countries had issued travel advisories to their citizens not to visit Kashmir after the abduction of six foreign tourists by Al Faran, a mysterious militant outfit near Pahalgam in July 1995.
Later a Norwegian Hans Ostro was beheaded, while an American John Chides managed to escape from their dragnet. Fates of four other tourists, including American Donald Fred Hutchings, Britons Paul Wells and Keith Mangan and German Dirk Hasert remains a mystery till date.
“It’s been 20 years since militancy erupted in J&K. The government is trying its best to convince foreign diplomats to withdraw the advisories, but it does not seem that in near future these would be lifted”, said an official.
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