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Retrieving Kashmir Tourism |
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| Kashmir Tourism has seen many ups and downs during last half century or so. It reached an all time high figure of over seven hundred thousand arrivals in 1989 and almost completely disappeared during the Indo-Pak conflicts in 1965 and 1971. The lowest recorded figure was probably in 1990/91 as four to six thousand comprising mostly of foreign diplomats and media personnel. However, most of the set backs were due to prevailing situation of turmoil and uncertainty. Except for a couple of incidents, the kidnapping of five Foreign Tourists from Pahalgam area in 1995 and killing of some Indian Tourists in Dal Lake in mid nineties, by and large the Tourists had remained unmolested. Neither the Tourists nor the Tourist establishments were targeted specifically. Any damage was circumstantial and collateral. One of the main reasons for this was that the Tourist arrivals were not taken as a barometer of political normalcy. Every one knew that the situation was not absolutely normal but at the same time there was no direct problem for the tourists visiting traditional resorts. The efforts in convincing the tour operators in 1998 by interaction of local travel trade with operators from Gujarat, Maharashtra, and West Bengal and their familiarisation tours to the Valley resulted in appreciable increase in traffic. About one hundred and seventy thousand tourists visited Kashmir in 1999 in spite of the Kargil War. At that time we were looking at the “Revival” of Tourism but now the recent events have given such a tremendous set back to Tourism that we have to look at its “Retrieval”. The current years incidents specifically directed at tourists and that too from the main tourism generating markets for Kashmir which are Gujarat, Maharashtra, and West Bengal have put a mental and psychological block very difficult to remove through normal tourism channels. There have been more gruesome incidents in Egypt (Luxor) and Indonesia (Bali) but the tourist arrivals have bounced back there because these were only isolated incidents and there did not exist a situation of continuous conflict as in Kashmir. Even in places were a continuous situation of conflict exists such as Palestine and Israel as well as Lebanon, the tourism arrivals continue without problem due to specific reasons. Firstly, these countries do not politicise tourism and it is not taken as a barometer of political normalcy. Secondly, none of the conflicting parties specifically target tourists. In our case both the things have happened in the recent past. It was the beginning of coalition government which signalled the politicisation of tourism and the author was no less than the then Minister Tourism who unfortunately converted Tourism into a political constituency with disastrous consequences. Because of the branding of Kashmir as a trouble spot even minor incidents get blown out of proportion as these make a good copy for both print as well as electronic media. During and after the occurrence of these incidents many theories were floating both regarding perpetrators as well as the motives for these violent inhuman actions involving innocent civilians. Rumours had it that some rival destinations were indulging in these acts to divert the traffic to their areas. These destinations had substantially developed at the cost of Kashmir. Another theory was that a group of people perennially against the aspirations of Kashmiris believes that they should be economically crushed to wean them away from the path of Azadi. In fact in mid nineties when efforts were being made for revival of tourism from Maharashtra, this group had specifically through their newspaper directed the local people not to go to Kashmir and economically strangulate the Kashmiris. The third and the most sticking theory was the action of militants against the politicisation of tourism. The media especially the electronic one played up the story so much that it is believed throughout the country that it were the militants who attacked the tourists. This is usual in India when the media takes on the job of the investigator, prosecutor, and the judge without waiting for the normal procedure of the law to take its course. Police had registered a number of cases and investigations were started in earnest. However, as usual a complete and clear picture of the episode did not emerge. Things here get shelved either due to the inability of the investigators to get to the bottom of the case or due to “National Interest”. One is not sure what happened in the present case. The State Tourism Department has been working overtime for damage control and to remove the psychological barrier which has blocked inflow of mass tourism. A number of familiarisation tours and road shows are being planned. However, most of the Government efforts face a handicap of “Propaganda” and people do not get easily convinced. In fact, when a senior officer of the State Tourism Department was trying to convince some travel agents from Gujarat to come to Kashmir, he was rebuffed and asked to get tourists from Pakistan. This was in spite of the fact that one and all in Kashmir had condemned the attacks on innocent tourists. In such a situation the first and the foremost thing is for Kashmiris of all shades of opinion to take a conscious decision whether we want tourists to come here or not? There are no two opinions that these violent incidents have drastically damaged the Kashmir’s traditional image of a very hospitable people. The faith of all outsiders in this belief of unique hospitality has been terribly shaken. It is very unfortunate that the outsiders’ faith in the humanity and hospitality of the local people which had touched unprecedented heights during the disastrous Amarnath Yatra of 1996 when the villagers all along the route had sheltered thousands of suffering pilgrims, has been totally shaken. There is no better way of affirming our faith in the historical traditions of humanity and hospitality than the organisations accused of damaging the same coming out openly in supporting and confirming these traditions for which Kashmir has been famous throughout the world. No one except Hurriyat Conference and all militant organisations fighting for Azadi can retrieve the shaken faith. It is they who should uphold our centuries old traditions of welcoming guests who come to us in good faith without any malice or ill will. It is not only for the economic benefit of tourism that we have to act but we have to clear the blemish on our character. People are being given an impression that Kashmiris are violent, communal, arrogant, and discourteous. We are painted as heartless terrorists. This is absolutely false. Terrorism is against the very fundamentals of our faith. Tourism has never been the back bone of our economy. We did not have any tourism for almost a decade yet we did not starve. But losing our image as the liveliest, hospitable, and friendly people is much more damaging than losing the economic benefits of tourism. Will somebody please take the initiative? |
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