Record 4.3L tourists visited Tulip garden this yr
Tourist influx at the Kashmir’s iconic Tulip garden — the largest in Asia has witnessed a surge with each passing year.
As the authorities decided to close the garden for this season from Thursday, a record footfall of 4.35 lakh-- highest since its inception in 2006, was witnessed this year. These numbers were despite the incessant rains in April and fall in day temperatures in the valley owing to the light snowfall over mountains.
The numbers are 15% more than last year’s 3.77 lakh visitors and almost double of 2.3 lakh in 2021.
“We recorded an all time high number of 4.35 lakh tourists till Tuesday. We expect the number to increase to 4.5 lakh as the day ends after which the garden will be closed to the public,” said incharge of the garden, Asif Yatoo.
The garden was opened on March 23 with over 1.7 million tulip bulbs.
“While 80% were tourists from various states, over 1,000 foreign tourists were also among the visitors,” Yatoo said.
The floriculture department, which takes care of the garden, had added five more varieties of tulip taking the overall types to 73. Usually, the tulip bloom starts by late March. The average life of a tulip flower is 20 days and can stretch up to 25-30 days with overall bloom getting extended by adding late-blooming varieties of tulips. The temperature-sensitive flowers need temperature above 15 degrees and below 25 degrees.
“Despite the weather, we set a new record of arrivals this year,” Yatoo said.
Last year the garden witnessed an all-time high footfall of over 3.7 lakh visitors including locals, up from 3.6 lakh visitors in 2022 and 2.3 lakh in 2021.
“The money flows when 4.5 lakh people visit a place just as the winter ends. This is very good for the tourism sector and for the people associated with it,” Yatoo said.