Foreign tourist arrivals to Kashmir dip by 95 percent

SRINAGAR — In the past three years, the foreign tourist arrivals in Kashmir Valley have dipped by almost 95.22 per cent. However, among the domestic tourist arrivals, the visitor entrance has increased nearly by 20 per cent.

According to the official figures available with the news agency Kashmir News Observer (KNO), in the past three years, the highest number of foreign tourist arrivals in Kashmir valley was recorded in the year 2019.

In the year 2019, at least 33,779 foreign tourists and 53,175,3 domestic tourists had visited the Kashmir valley.

In the following year 2020, there had been a drastic fall among both foreign and domestic tourist arrivals by more than 89 per cent and 93 per cent respectively. The official figures reveal that in this fiscal, a total of 3897 foreign and 37,370 domestic tourists had visited the valley.

Likewise, in the previous fiscal 2021, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the Valley had dipped almost by 95.22 per cent, however, the domestic tourist arrivals had increased by nearly 20 per cent. In this year only, 1615 foreign and 6,641,99 domestic tourists had arrived in Kashmir.

This information was revealed by the Deputy Director of Tourism and Planning Department in a reply to the Right to Information (RTI) application filed by the activist M M Shuja.