| News Details |
| Ladakh emerges as an ‘independent tourist destination’, constant rise in footprints | | cursed valley registers consistent fall in tourist influx | 
Leh(Ladakh), September 27, (Scoop News)-Till 1990 tourism in Ladakh was an extension of Kashmir bound tourists but of late has emerged as an independent tourist destination in the state with increased footfall of inbound holidaymakers, the sources said.
Due to ongoing turmoil, Kashmir has been witnessing a constant decline in its tourist influx for past over two decades and particularly since 2008. However, pilgrims visiting Amarnath Cave shrine keeps the wheels of the industry moving on.
They said the unrest in Kashmir has least impact on the trade as most of the tourists either fly in directly or arrive by surface vai Manali in Himachal Pradesh.
“The situation in Kashmir does no more impact the tourist influx to this region,” they said adding “the groups who were making their reservations via Srinagar earlier do directly fly in from Delhi or elsewhere now.”
This year a large number of tourists, both domestic and foreign, visited Ladakh region as compared to last year.
Over 228,642 holidaymakers including 49, 298 foreigners have been registered till September 20 and the number is likely to go up further till end of the season/ year.
Last year, 197, 603 domestic and 38,005 foreign holidaymakers visited the place not withstanding unprecedented violence in Kashmir, the sources said.
Likewise, tourist influx to Kargil and Zanskar has also recorded increase in footprints compared to last year.
Over 60, 957 tourists including nearly 3,000 foreigners visited the places till last month, they informed.
Incidentally, the department has been spending millions of rupees on publicity and road-shows besides holding of familiarzation tours for promoting Kashmir as a ‘destination’ but has not been able to generate the tourist traffic so far both from within the country and abroad.
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