Srinagar, May 10: Following the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in India, tourism bookings in the Valley have plummeted, with around 95 percent of tourists cancelling their trips.
Officials in the Tourism department estimate that the number of tourists has considerably gone down with only 32,594 tourists visiting the Valley in the month of April.
According to the available figures, the first 15 days of April has recorded around 25,956 tourists in the Valley, while as in the last 15 days of the month the numbers dipped to around 6,638.
Manzoor Pakthoon, a tourism trader, said that they had full bookings and were sold out till May-end, but the recent spike has come like a shocker for them.
“After the promotional program in different parts of the country, the first twenty days after the opening of Tulip Garden witnessed a record footfall of around two lakh visitors, but spurt in Covid-19 positive cases in different parts of the country led to the mass cancellations, and we don’t know how to react to this situation,” he was quoted as saying by KNO.
Prominent hotelier and chairman Hoteliers Association, Mushtaq Chahya said the situation across the country is not good. “Right now priority should be to save life. Economy can get a hit, but can be worked on, if people get to live,” Chahya said. (With KNO inputs)
