Suddenly, houseful again

The Kashmir Valley sports a different look now. In the last fortnight, tourists from within the country and abroad have thronged its hotels ...

The Kashmir Valley sports a different look now. In the last fortnight, tourists from within the country and abroad have thronged its hotels and houseboats, making bookings like there is no tomorrow.

The fear of violence, that had kept holiday-makers away from the state for several years, seems to have disappeared. Domestic tourists, mostly from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Punjab, Kerala and Gujarat, and foreigners have been packing into popular picnic spots in the Valley. Smiles are back on the sullen faces of hotel staff and shikarwalas here and occupancy rates at hotels and houseboats have soared.

8216;8216;Things have been running smoothly. Let8217;s hope no untoward incident happens that could scare away the tourists,8217;8217; says vice-chairman of the Houseboat Owners Association Bashir Ahmad Shah. 8216;8216;We have about 1,200 houseboats in the Dal Lake and occupancy rate has now crossed 30 per cent,8217;8217; he adds.

Drive past the sprawling Dal Lake and you would come across holiday-makers jostling outside hotels to book rooms. Some are even turned away for there are no vacant rooms.

8216;8216;Our occupancy rate right now is over 80 per cent. We are overwhelmed by the demand. Till 10 days ago, there was nobody to make bookings. We are hoping peace would last. Our guests are mostly from Gujarat, Mumbai and Delhi,8217;8217; says Abdul Rehman of Hotel Welcome that overlooks the Dal Lake.

Feasting his eyes on the mountains that ring the Dal Lake, 35-year-old Mandhar Karambelkar, a marketing executive from Mumbai, says it8217;s a dream come true. 8216;8216;This place is more beautiful than what we have seen in movies. I had dreamt all these years of visiting this place but could never make it to due to the violence here. I made plans only this year after Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed visited Mumbai and tried to convince people that it8217;s safe to travel to Kashmir. I have been here for three days and there has not been any violence. I plan to stay on for 12 more days,8217;8217; says Karambelkar, who is putting up at Hotel Grand Palace.

The benefits of the revival in inbound tourism has trickled down to the ubiquitous shikarawalas who are the worst hit by violence as they rely on tourists for a living. 8216;8216;We have spent all these years waiting for people to come and take a ride in our shikaras. This year has started on a positive note,8217;8217; says Mohammad Shaban, a shikarwala. However, the joy at the arrival of tourists is tinged with fear as memories of pre-Kargil days weigh heavy on everyone8217;s mind. Two weeks before the Kargil conflict broke out in 1999, Kashmir was flooded by tourists who later ran away seeing IAF warplanes whizzing through the skies of Srinagar.