Little footfall
Snow in winter and the efforts of the government have made very little difference in the ground as the tourist footfall is very little. The stakeholders of the tourism industry are reeling under debts of different financial instructions and banks as they have failed to repay the loans in the past 18 months.
The sudden decision of the central government in the middle of Amarnath Yatra to go for the clampdown before abrogation of article 370 has broken the back of the tourism industry here.
The people connected with this trade especially in Srinagar city are waiting anxiously and desperately for the tourism to pick so that they can make their mere survival possible.
It was unfortunate that after the government eased restrictions post August 5, 2019, on March 20, 2020, another lockdown was imposed to control Covid-19.
It remained in force for months together forcing people to remain indoors. These two spells of acute paralyzes of life left the economy in taters in general but in Kashmir valley in particular.
In the latest session of Parliament, the government in a written reply said that there has been a huge decline in tourism since 5 August 2019, and said that efforts of the government were on to revive this industry in Jammu and Kashmir.
