With the start of the insurgency, the numbers fell drastically and with peace returning to the Kashmir Valley, the foreign tourists are yet again getting attracted to Paradise on Earth

Kashmir has again become the first choice of international tourists. Over 15 thousand foreign tourists have visited the Kashmir Valley in the first six months of 2023. While the number of tourists coming to Kashmir has broken all previous records, at the same time, foreign tourists have kept their date with Kashmir its all-time high arrival of foreign tourists in the Valley in the last three decades. In 2022, the total number of foreign tourists who visited the Kashmir Valley was around 4,000. The government is hopeful that all the previous records of foreign tourists visiting Kashmir Valley would be broken.

"After many years, this is a positive development for the tourism of Jammu and Kashmir. In this year, we have already reached 15 and a half thousand foreign tourists who come from various countries across the world into Jammu and Kashmir. We are hoping that the number of foreign tourists will be far more than what we had last year. This is a very positive development, and I am very sanguine that the G20 event which was held in Srinagar in the last week of May will go a long way in increasing the foreign tourists rush and we are seeing a lot of queries and bookings that have been made from various countries," said Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, Secretary Tourism.

The government of Jammu and Kashmir hosted a G20 meeting in May. Ambassadors and foreign delegates from around 17 countries participated in these meetings with a focus on tourism. The government is hopeful that G20 meetings held in Srinagar would translate into more promotion of Kashmir tourism across the world. The numbers have already crossed all the previous records and the government is also planning to do international promotions, especially in Southeast Asian, Middle East and North American countries.

Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, Secretary of Tourism, added, "Promotion of tourism is a very dynamic task undertaken by the Department of tourism in Jammu and Kashmir. We are not following previous methods of promotion., with changing times it's also important to department and intervention by way of promotion change, this is the era of digital marketing, this is the era of online marketing. We are doing that, and we are starting virtual tours. We are doing airline promotions so that frequent flyers can be attracted. We believe that southeast Asian countries are a huge market for us, and we are focusing on that. The Middle East is a core focus area and a target too. The Northern American continent is a very important aspect of our promotional."

Kashmir has been one of the favourite destinations of foreign tourists in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. With the start of the insurgency, the numbers fell drastically and with peace returning to the Kashmir Valley, the foreign tourists are yet again getting attracted to Paradise on Earth.

"Kashmir is different and it has a good environment and people are extremely friendly. It is crazily nice. I heard Kashmir has had a huge number of Korean tourists visiting. I wish a lot of Koreans would come back to India and Kashmir," said Lin, a Tourist from Korea.

Kashmir this year is witnessing a huge tourism boom with around 10 lakh domestic and foreign tourists visiting the Union Territory in the first six months.