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| Separatists in no mood to ensure peace in Valley | | Can CM save tourist season? | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Apr 15: Will Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti be able to save the coming tourist season in Kashmir? Mehbooba, who retained the portfolio of Tourism Ministry with herself, seems to be caught in a difficult situation with the killing of one more boy on Friday during protests- taking the death toll to five in a week's time alone.
A senior official at the tourism department told Early Times that soon Mehbooba assumed CM's office in the State, she was keen to go for the major reforms in the tourism sector and was determined to transform the tourism industry. "The situation seems to be in favour of none. There are meagre hopes that one could pin about the tourism sector. The news has already spread about the series of protests which the separatists have called valley wide. It is bad marketing indeed and the harvest wouldn't be much positive," says the official.
It was informed further that the Government is striving to end the present wave of crises at an earliest so that it could not affect the coming tourist season. "No one would endanger the lives of his family if similar scenes are continuously being witnessed. There has to be an end to such turbulence," another tourism official added.
Meanwhile, the hotel owners and those associated with the tourism business are facing a tough time with fear of losing the otherwise profitable year to the street protests and violent clashes.
People associated with the tourism said they were hopeful of some good business this year after the catastrophic floods of 2014 that wrecked havoc across, leaving tourism's reed in Kashmir broken. "We had kept our fingers crossed; hoping that the year would bring lot of tourists to the State but it seems that the separatists have some other thing in mind. They least bother about peoples' woes. What they want is to keep the political pot boiling in Kashmir," says Abdul Hameed, a local pony wala at tourist resort Pahalgam.
Others who seconded his views were the houseboat owners, tourist guides and those who earn their livelihood with the arrival of the tourists from outside.
Furthermore, it was informed by the Tourism Department that if the similar situation continues in Valley it will drain plethora of money out of the State exchequer. The Tourism Department has spent hefty amounts on travel marts, road shows and advertisements in various States in a bid to lure tourists to Jammu and Kashmir. "It will be a total disaster if 2016 again proves fatal for the tourism here. There have been already many efforts done to rejuvenate the tourism sector after 2014 floods. No one would bear the loss that would be in the offing if the measures for pacification of the situation aren't taken at an earliest," said a tourism official. |
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