SRINAGAR: The 15-day long tourism festival aimed at wooing holidaymakers to this scenic Himalayan region of Kashmir has proven to be a disappointment.
With years of violence waning in the region, tourism has been making a steady comeback.
However, this year the festival came in view of apprehensions after the execution of a Kashmiri man, Afzal Guru in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
The authorities had announced the fest with promises of subsidized airfares and hotel accommodations besides sponsored visits to less-trod-over tourist destinations.
Cultural items, folk songs and traditional Kashmiri dances like band pather were performed at select locations to enthrall tourists.
But authorities admit that the fest failed to achieve what it was organised for – to pull tourists.
At the sprawling convocation center on the banks of Dal Lake on Wednesday, the concluding gala event was mainly attended by locals and no domestic or foreign tourists.
Just nearby at Nehru Park, a tourist from the West Bengal state, Gautam Bandopadhyay said he was unaware of any such things as a tourist festival.
“I had already planned to come to Kashmir, on my own,” he said.
Ghulam Ahmed Mir, the state’s tourism minister, however, admitted that the festival was not a success, but called it a ‘good beginning’.
“We are open to appreciation and criticism,” he said.
‘Suspicious’
With a two decade conflict having reached its lowest ebb in recent years, authorities in the state are working over time to pull local and foreign tourists.
Kashmir is an agrarian economy and tourism contributes less than 5 percent to it. Yet the government has been emphasising on its importance.
During the festival also, school and college students were involved to debate on the role of tourism in shaping Kashmir’s economy.
“We are trying to make the common people stakeholders in tourism industry. They should understand that the worsening of situation does not affect the income of bureaucrats and ministers but it only snatches the bread and butter of common people”, the tourism minister said.
However this effort of the authorities has often drawn flak in public circles.
Many see it as an attempt to create a false impression that Kashmir’s economy was solely dependent on tourists and, according to them, shun protests that may have a negative impact on it.
