‘SITUATION NOT CONDUCIVE FOR RESUMPTION OF TOURISM’

SRINAGAR: Most tourism players in the Valley are not enthused over the Jammu and Kashmir administration’s move to reopen the Union territory for tourists amid the Covid-19 pandemic, saying the ground situation is far from normal for any such activity to take place.

They said in these extraordinary times, the survival of people is paramount and everything else comes later.

“Even as the financial condition of the tourism players in the Kashmir valley is bad, majority of them do not want tourists to start coming yet, more so when there has been a spike in the Covid cases. Everyone is concerned about his safety and well-being,” Javaid Ahmad, a travel agent, said.

Ashfaq Siddiq, the president of Travel Agents Association of Kashmir (TAAK), said, “We have to see the ground realities, the whole of India, the whole of the world in fact, is grappling with Covid crisis. Tourism and leisure is the last thing on the minds of people in the times of a pandemic. Let us not fool ourselves and expect tourists to start coming.” “It is an ill-timed decision, he added.