Kashmir courts domestic tourists despite turmoil
‘MORE THAN 1.6 MILLION VISITORS TRAVELLED TO VALLEY IN FIRST SIX MONTHS’
A BIG-BUDGET tourism campaign is luring Indians to Kashmir with the promise of stunning Himalayan scenery, snow-covered hill stations and the remote Hindu shrines dotting the Muslim-majority region.
More than 1.6 million Indian travellers visited the region in the first six months of this year – a new record, according to local officials, and four times the number who visited over the same period in 2019.
Many tourists fraternise and take selfies with soldiers, and are dismissive of the regular firefights between troops and rebels taking place out of sight from popular destinations. “Now everything is fine in Kashmir,” Dilip Bhai, a visitor from Gujarat, said while waiting in queue outside a restaurant guarded by paramilitary forces.
“The news of violence we hear in media is more rumour than reality,” he said, adding that whatever armed clashes were happening “on the side” did not worry him.
Security forces have tightened a chokehold on Kashmir – also claimed and partly controlled by Pakistan – since 2019, when India’s government revoked the limited autonomy constitutionally guaranteed to the region.
That year, thousands of people were taken into preventative detention to forestall expected protests against the sudden decision, while authorities severed communications links in what became the world’s longest-ever internet shutdown.
Protests have since been made virtually impossible, local journalists are regularly harassed by police and the region is shut off to foreign reporters. But clashes still break out in the territory almost every week, with officials counting 130 suspected rebels and 19 members of the security forces killed over the first six months of the year.
Periodic attempts to revive the tourism market faltered, with three popular uprisings between 2008 and 2016 leaving more than 300 civilians dead and scaring off potential visitors.
Prime minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked Kashmir’s limited autonomy three years ago, following which authorities began promoting the region as one of the country’s premier getaway destinations.
A promotional blitz followed, with festivals, travel marts, roadshows and summits featuring Indian travel operators, sponsored by the local government and 21 major cities across India.
The government announced the opening of a ski resort among 75 new “untapped destinations” for tourists, including some close to the heavily militarised de facto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Authorities are also courting investors to build 20,000 hotel rooms in addition to the 50,000 already in the territory, and they have eased a homestay policy to encourage residents to host visitors.
Sarmad Hafeez, the local government’s tourism secretary, said the official budget to promote tourism had “quadrupled” in the past two years.
“We changed past perceptions about Kashmir,” he said. “Events sent out a clear message that Kashmir is safe to travel to.”
However, a leading Kashmiri trader, asking not to be named for fear of government reprisal, said, “Promotion of tourism is good, but it is done with a kind of nationalist triumphalism.
“It’s like war by other means,” they added. “The way tourism is being promoted by the government is telling Indians: go spend time there and make Kashmir yours.”
The region’s potential for growth as a travel destination remains hampered by its violent history and prevailing unhappiness with Indian rule, leaving some visitors unnerved by the heavy security presence.
“If Kashmir is a part of India,” a tourist from West Bengal said, “then we should ask why there are so many security forces everywhere.”