For last few years, the Kashmir’s Tourism Officials and the other players of the industry have been making efforts to woo back Arab tourists from the Middle East region and especially from the Gulf area. For this purpose the Kashmir Food Festival has been regularly held in Dubai for last three years. In addition, Tourism Officials have been participating in the Arabian Travel Mart held every year in the first week of May in Dubai’s World Trade Centre. During the current year till October end already over a thousand tourists from this region have visited Kashmir. The important aspect of these Middle Eastern visitors has been the coming back of families after a gap of couple of decades. Prior to outbreak of turmoil in 1990, a large number of Arab families used to visit the valley and stay in House-Boats on the Dal Lake and in Chalets in Gulmarg, Pahalgam as well as in posh residential houses in Srinagar during the months of July and August. These families would take this accommodation for long periods, sometimes for couple of months or so. Kashmir was an ideal location to escape from the blistering desert heat. The disturbances saw the entire tourism scene plummet to a virtual zero. However, for last few years, tourism has been revived in a big way and foreign tourists have started coming back. The revival of Gulf traffic was initiated by Galadari family from Dubai which visited Kashmir a couple of years back. This year Bukhari family from Saudi Arabia, some members of Royal family including a minister from Oman, families from Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq visited Kashmir. In addition some visitors from Iran also came here. Even though the numbers are low, 65 from Kuwait, 53 from Saudi Arabia, 30 from UAE, 30 from Jordan, 12 from Oman, and 78 from Iran, yet a beginning has been made. The Srinagar Airport which was declared as an International Airport by the Indian Government couple of years back is expected to be fully functional by next April or so. To begin with, direct flights from Dubai, Muscat, Jeddah, Bahrain, and Kuwait are proposed to be operated by Air India to Srinagar. Even at present Air India is operating direct Hajj flights from Srinagar to Jeddah with a refuelling stop at Sharjah. Apart from Arabs, the Gulf Region has a large western expatriate population for whom Kashmir would be a short haul destination and they could avail part of their summer break for visiting Kashmir. These days a large number of airlines route their flights through Dubai and with a direct Kashmir connection even these travellers could take short trips to Kashmir. The Middle East connection is expected to give a boost not only in tourism sector but even the trade will get a fillip. A large number of Kashmiri traders have been visiting different Gulf countries in recent years and with the facility of direct flights the numbers will appreciably go up. The short duration of flights (about 3 hours or so) will also open up the possibility of exporting fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers, and trout fish from Kashmir to Dubai and other Arab Capitals. In 2004, Mufti Mohammad Sayed who was the then Chief Minister had visited Dubai with a delegation of Tourism Officials. He had an interaction with the local Travel Trade, Business Magnates, and Industrialists. He had received a tremendous response from the local business and travel associations and had even announced in a press conference there the setting up of a Kashmir Travel and Trade Bureau. A number of people had shown interest in both investing in Kashmir as well as importing a number of items including fruit, flowers, exotic vegetables, and trout fish. In fact, some people had subsequently visited Kashmir to explore these possibilities further. However, the change in the leadership of the Government completely wiped out the initiative. Apart from trade, the Gulf can be an excellent opening for jobs for Kashmiri Youth. With the amount of constructions going on in Dubai and other areas, there are possibilities of jobs in hundreds of thousands in various sectors in the entire region. One could even visualise an overseas employment bureau to try placement of technically trained Youth from Kashmir in these areas. In fact, one of the groups IFFCO (International Food Stuffs Company) had promised to take a few hundred Kashmiris every year. About a couple of dozen have already joined the group. The initiative slowed down because of lack of interest on the part of the State Government. Gulf region also offers local travel agents in Kashmir an outlet for outbound tourism. Outbound Tourism has tremendously grown in India over last decade or so. Some years back, the inbound tourism was 3 million while as the outbound was 5 million. The severe winter cold sends a large number of Kashmiris to different Indian cities like Delhi, and Mumbai for short stays especially for shopping. In the present competitive travel business it may be preferable to visit Dubai than Delhi or Mumbai especially because of choice in shopping and cheap airfares. Finally, an important factor in Kashmir’s present turmoil has been its total geographical isolation after 1947. Kashmir used to be an important hub on various ancient trade routes including the famous Silk Route. Prior to 1947 Kashmiris could visit freely the whole world especially the neighbouring countries in the sub-continent, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Last 60 years have put them in a virtual prison with only one opening towards Delhi. This total isolation has a profound effect on the psyche of the people and they feel claustrophobic. The recent partial opening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road has not helped much as the cumbersome travel formalities have prevented large scale movement of people on this route. Moreover, it is not a free travel route but only for relations on the two sides of the LOC. The proposed trade across the Line of Control is yet to materialise. The process has been dragging on for years now and one is not sure whether it will ever start? In this situation, the Dubai connection may be a boon for ending the decades old isolation of Kashmir. One hopes that it will materialise soon and Kashmir fully opens up to the Gulf for Tourism, Trade, and Employment!