Even a single good event can make a big difference; it can help to bring Kashmir back on the international tourist map as the best destination. On Thursday, it became apparent when one of the Kashmir’s oldest churches at Gulmarg came to life after many decades with wedding bells ringing as Tim Robertson and Kate Hamilton from Australia tied nuptial knot. For the young couple, wearing traditional embroidered Kashmiri costumes as their wedding dress and having ‘white wedding’ amidst angelic white surroundings of the resort was a dream come true. For attracting good media coverage, become viral on the social media and microblog it sent a message across the world about the beauty of the land and hospitality of its people. Tour organisers promoting the events like this can be as powerful as Thomas Moore ‘s early eighteenth-century epic Lalla Rookh that was the first major introduction of Kashmir to Europe. It were mesmerizing starting verses of the poem: ‘who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere, with its roses the brightest that earth ever gave, its temples and grottos and fountains as clear, as the love-lighted eyes that hang over their wave’ that had made hundreds of tour and adventure lovers from the west take arduous journey to the Himalayan Paradise and write about it. Like the travellers of the ninetieth century, who had brought tourism and also promoted arts and crafts of the state in the West, the young couple like Tim and Kate, could be ambassadors for the industry, more particularly the winter tourism. Such events could also be an antidote to toxic propaganda campaign launched by some televisions channels and media houses against J&K, with ulterior motives of damaging its economy. Governor Satya Pal Malik had also expressed his displeasure against media ‘ demonising’ Kashmir and damaging the interests of the state through its ‘negative portrayal’. To see tourism back on rails in the state, both the state and central governments will have to work in tandem and promoting the state as an all-season destination internationally.
Promoting Tourism
