The travel advisories issued by various countries to their citizens suggesting against traveling to most parts of Jammu and Kashmir is a matter of grave concern. Tourism has been directly and indirectly providing livelihood to hundreds of thousands of people in this State.   Compared to the tourism contributing 6.23 percent to the national GDP, it contributed 15 percent to the State GDP during the peak times in eighties.  The industry suffered a huge setback in nineties. It has been for the efforts made by the government during the past some years it once again started picking up in the state. And if the official figures are to be relied upon, about half a million tourists visited this State during the past year. Majority of them have been low and lowest spending pilgrim tourists. The State in fact has all along failed to attract high budget international tourism that would have helped in salvaging this important sector of the State economy. Even during peak times of peace days the number of international tourists during one year never crossed the figure of one hundred thousand.  The state tourism department and travel agencies for the past six decades have remained obsessed with United States and European countries and at no point of time have endeavored to attract tourists from the East European and the Central Asian countries. There have so far been no efforts worth mentioning for selling Kashmir to the Arab world. Hopes had brightened for attracting tourism from the Arab countries after flights between Srinagar and Dubai were started but for the lack of publicity by the travel agencies so far there has been no tourism to the state from these countries. 
Though not much has been done so far by the state government for attracting international tourism; and whatever little initiatives have been taken are dampened by the advisors issued by various countries, particularly United States and European countries. The  recently issued advisory was by the British government advising   ‘against all travel to or through rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir, other than to Ladakh, and against all but essential travel to Srinagar.’ Warning its people about the state continuing to remain high risk  unpredictable area with threats of bombings, grenade attacks, shooting and kidnapping, and a substantial security force presence persisting, is defiantly going to work as disincentive for any potential tourist from the Britain. The Minister of Tourism, Nawang Rigzin Jora, was right in stating that the travel advisories issued by various countries were going to be a major hindrance for the revival of the tourism sector in the State. By and large the government is groping in the dark on the issue. It is not sufficient to repeat the exercise of inviting the ambassadors of Western countries to Valley for having on the spot assessment of the situation. The diplomats of European Union and the United States have been visiting the State every year for making an assessment of the political situations prevailing in the state. The government had invited Ambassadors of various countries during the last year also but none of the countries withdrew the advisories.  There can be no denying that the participation in international tourism festival or the State organizing tourism, handicrafts or heritage exhibitions in various countries help promote tourism, but in a situation like as has been obtaining in Jammu and Kashmir much more needs to be done. In the given situation it is the Indian Missions in various countries that have to play an important role for dispelling the impression  that prompts issuance of the advisories.  It is a stark reality that will be hard for the MEA to contradict that none of the Indian Missions abroad has so far endeavored to make the host countries withdraw the advisories issued against visiting Jammu and Kashmir. It is also true that for all national level tourism and handicrafts promotion organizations J&K has been no priority. If the Central government is really interested in reviving tourism in the state it needs intervention at the highest level. Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh must ask the MEA to help the State in this regard.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 IST