SHAKEELA ANDRABI
SRINAGAR: Tourism sector, back-bone of socio economic life of Kashmir is one of the most effected sectors due to COVID.
earlier, the sector was badly affected by turmoil in Kashmir, political uncertainty, terrorism and other related issues. Since August 2019, tourism has not picked up in Valley and thereafter COVID effected the sector even more badly. A Traders body has estimated that Kashmir tourism has lost Rs 1,500 crores due to corona lockdown.
On average, international carriers, including Delta and United Airlines, were out of cash due to COVID lockdown, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The technological revolution that brought us closer together by making travel and tourism easy and affordable-a revolution that fueled one billion trips a year became in front of helpless virus. Taking a snapshot of tourism losses is difficult, as the data changes as quickly as virus spreads. If the pandemic continues for several more months, the World Travel and Tourism Council, the trade group representing major global travel companies, projected a global loss of 75 million jobs and $2.1 trillion in revenue.
Meanwhile after the intensity of COVID first wave ended, Kashmir tourism department initiated various measures to bring tourists back which started yielding positive results. The aggressive campaigning was done by Tourism Department at various famous cities of the country such as Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Kolkata in West Bengal and Mumbai in Maharashtra.
Secretary Tourism Sarmad Hafeez and Director Tourism Kashmir G N Itoo were also present in these road shows, seminars and other activities.
The only motto of these programmes was to attract more and more tourists in Valley so that tourism sector could be revived.
These road shows were very fruitful and a large number of people visited Kashmir, several famous bollywood banners and filmmakers were also motivated to shoot their films and upcoming projects in Valley.
The hotel bookings also went up in the first four . months of 2021 with direct flight services to Srinagar from various cities like Ahmedabad and Bengaluru, making travel to Kashmir easier. In January 2021 National Winter games were also held in world most preferable snow slopes of Gulmarg, where thousands of world-famous skiers and other players including tourists and Bollywood stars were present and participated in various disciplines.
Later in ending of Feb and first week of march, a group of famous Bollywood actors and directors also made as long tour to different parts of Kashmir and assured local administration that in future they would give first preference to the Kashmir but second wave of COVID-19 pandemic played spoilsport with advance bookings getting cancelled from mid-April. Once again tourism sector lost pace and people associated with the sector including Shikarawalas and houseboat owners, taxi operators, Ponywalas and artisans losing their source of income.
Thousands of families that rely on tourism and allied sectors are struggling to stay afloat since 2019. This is known to everyone that tourism is a significant contributor to Jammu and Kashmir’s economy and accounts for around seven per cent of region’s Gross Domestic Product, according to a data.
However, since the second wave of COVID-19 is decreasing, administration particularly tourism department has started various fresh initiatives like village tourism.
Secretary Tourism Sarmad Hafeez said that vaccination drive is going on in full swing and 85% of the people associated with the tourism industry have already been vaccinated .
The Department of Tourism is planning to bring areas like Kitter Daji, Munde Daji, Bosian and other areas on the tourism map of Kashmir and in that process, a detailed project report is being prepared by the department.
In this regard, Director Tourism Kashmir, Dr. GN Itoo took a detailed tour of upper Rafiabad areas during which he visited Kitter Daji. He also took an on-spot assessment of various trekking routes and other adventure avenues available at these places. Dr. Itoo said that the department is committed to hand holding of tourism stakeholders on all fronts so that they are able to cope up with the challenges of post COVID business environment.
The Director further said that to deal with the challenges of ongoing pandemic COVID-19, the department has completed the vaccination of employees of department and other allied workers besides more than ninety percent stakeholders have also been inoculated. He added that the department also organized a capacity building programme on implementation of COVID protocols recently for all the stakeholders associated with tourism sector.