Sun shines on Srinagar, ray of hope for tourism

CHILLING OUT: Water-skiing, shopping and just hanging around by the partially frozen Dal Lake, there's no dearth of options for tourists.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Television, for politicians with a vision

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Snow puts up no show in Srinagar
• Snow in the Valley brings sorrow, joy
• Let it snow: It's been snowing for 36 hrs in J&K

Keywords: Tourists, Snow

Srinagar: The sun is back in Srinagar and so are the tourists. According to the state Tourism Department, over four-and-a-half lakh tourists visited the city this winter.

Water-skiing, shopping and just hanging around by the partially frozen Dal Lake, there was no dearth of options.

“Yeah, it's a first experience for us. Till now we just heard and read about it in the newspapers but now lively seeing it is very amazing and very nice experience,” says a tourist Parul.

Gulmarg and Pahalgam, which were both packed during New Year's Eve despite it being the tourist off-season, are still seeing tourists pour in.

Sources say Kashmir had three times as many tourists in December as last year, 8,000 of them foreigners.

“I think its good for the tourism industry we have bright sunshine and the tourists are coming I think it’s very good. We have already have some snow in Gulmarg and also the upper reaches we have lots of snow there,” says Joint Director (J&K Tourism), Sarmad Hafeez.

Tour operators say business has rarely been better.

"This year right from November till date we are having tremendous response from domestic traffic as well as the best response ,we have never seen this type of response from south east . The business is beautiful and its increasing day by day,” President, Travel Agents Society of Kashmir, Akram Siah.