The Tourism arrivals these days seem to be on a very lowkey. May used to be the peak month as regards domestic tourism. Unfortunately,some out of control electronic media channels have painted such a scary pictureof Kashmir that no one dares to come here! The situation resembles earlynineties of the last century when tourist inflow had been reduced to virtualzero! The Tourism in Kashmir has two main aspects. One is the leisure tourismwhich represents people coming to enjoy the climate, landscape and visitvarious resorts and historical gardens and so on. These are the bulk oftourists who had been coming right from the start of the opening of Kashmir tooutsiders after the abolition of entry permit system in mid-fifties. Peoplecome in groups or as free independent travelers. This constitutes almost 90% ofthe tourists visiting Kashmir. It has two main types, the budget and middleclass tourists forming the bulk and the up market tourists who are limited innumbers because of the absence of world class facilities. The other segment isthe active tourism which includes persons coming for undertaking variousphysical activities like trekking, mountaineering, skiing, rafting and so on.Kashmir has unlimited potential for these activities with its mountains,streams and vast snow covered areas. In fact, it could be called thedestination for ultimate adventure! Most of the adventure activities are awayfrom the populated areas and these tourists come and go straight to theirchosen spots.
Before 1947, Kashmir had two types of adventure tourismactivities. One was the skiing at Gulmarg which had started in early thirtiesby setting up of the Ski Club of India by the British Army Officers. The otherwas the Maharaja style trekking with folding chairs, tables and luxury foodstarted by the House Boat owners for some British visitors. The real adventureas understood now was missing. Subsequently in seventies or so some travelagents conducted trekking and small climbing trips to Kolahoi and GangabalLake. The real adventure tourism on a sizeable scale started in early seventiesafter the setting up an Adventure Tourism Wing in the State TourismDirectorate. The government set up the wing called the Recreation Wing headedby Deputy Director Tourism (Recreation) and the seven national levelinstructors of skiing and mountaineering who had passed out as the first batchof National Ski Instructors from the Gulmarg Ski School run by the Ministry ofTourism, Government of India, were appointed as Assistant Directors Tourism(Recreation).
The Adventure or the Recreation wing gave a boost toAdventure Tourism throughout the state. Simultaneously a large number of travelagencies conducting groups for adventure travel especially trekking startedfunctioning. About 40 to 50 mountaineering expedition every year came to climbvarious mountain peaks in Kashmir and Ladakh. A number of foreign rafting andcanoeing experts were invited from New Zealand and USA who introduced theseactivities and trained local youth in white water canoeing and rafting. A watersports unit was set up at Manasbal. Inorder to facilitate adventure tourism, skiing, mountaineering and raftingequipment worth more than 10 crores was imported through the State TradingCorporation of India. The equipment was kept readily available for tourists aswell as local youth interested in adventure through various hiring shops inGulmarg and Srinagar. The Adventure Wing set up a rescue coordinating unit withAir Force, Army and Police. A hi-frequency wireless network was set upconnecting Leh, Padam, Kargil, Srinagar, Jammu and Delhi. A number of rescuesof mountaineers and trekkers in distress were arranged through this wirelessset up. In fact, during eighties adventure tourism both from within the countryand abroad was at its peak. Unfortunately, the events of nineties gave asetback to adventure tourism. However, in spite of disturbed conditionsheli-skiing and skiing at Gulmarg continued all through the turmoil ofnineties.
The recent experience has shown that leisure tourism isprone to the disturbed situation in different parts of the state. Any incidenthighlighted by media gives a setback. However, adventure tourism is not so muchaffected and people have been coming for taking part in these activities.Unfortunately, the adventure wing in the Tourism Department has virtuallyceased to exist. One of the reasons was the absorption of the first batch oftrained instructors in normal administrative services and getting posted out ofthe department. Almost all of these officers have now retired from service. Inorder to fully revive adventure tourism it is essential to either revive thewing on similar basis as it existed in seventies and eighties or set up anindependent directorate of adventure tourism. This directorate could be headedby a well-known adventure sportsperson and could have instructors from variousdisciplines as officers looking after these activities. The set up should beself-contained without the linkage with various administrative services fortransfers etc. The promotional prospects of the officers should be within thedirectorate at various levels depending upon their training and experience.Himachal has a set up called the Directorate of Mountaineering and Allied Sportswhich co-ordinates with Himachal Tourism for all adventure tourism activities.The existing Tourism Directorate could look after Tourism activities as perpast practice. They could undertake promotion and marketing in general. Theywould be responsible for the regulation of trade under J & K Registrationof Tourist Trade Act 1978/82. The functioning of Tourist Offices within thestate in various resorts and promotional offices in different metros would besupervised by the existing directorate. It will also formulate and implementplans for future development. If the Tourism activities are to continue andespecially the potential of Adventure Tourism is to be fully exploited, theGovernment has to seriously consider these proposals.