Over 22 lakh tourists have visited Kashmir this year, Director Tourism Fazl-ul-Haseeb said on Tuesday.
“From January 2022 to December 21st this year, 22,59,569 tourists have visited Kashmir Valley. These include 22,40,616 domestic tourists and 18,953 foreign arrivals,” Director Tourism Fazl-ul-Haseeb told the news agency Kashmir News Trust.
He said hotels have been completely booked by the tourists at tourist spots including Gulmarg to celebrate New Year. “We expect a record footfall of tourist arrivals in 2023,” he added.
In June this year, the office of Deputy Commissioner Anantnag had claimed that a record 80 lakh tourists visited the Valley.
“Kashmir is witnessing a ‘golden period of tourism’ as 80 lakh tourists have visited the UT in the past few months alone, breaking all the records of the past 20 years,” the Anantnag Deputy Commissioner’s office had said in a tweet. However, the figures quoted in the tweet are far from the actual number of tourists who visited the valley till December 21 of the calendar year.
According to the official record maintained by the Department of Tourism, the number of tourists who have visited Kashmir this year is 22 lakh, fifty-nine thousand and five hundred and sixty-nine (22,59,569).
The data reveals that 62645 tourists including 260 foreigners visited the Valley in January followed by 100509 including 230 foreigners in February, 180171 (520 foreign tourists) in March, 272377 (703 foreign tourists) in April, 375021 (1527 foreign tourists in May, 333589 (1069 foreign tourists) in June, 207376 (2854 foreign tourists) in July, 154919 (3140 foreign tourists) in August, 125252 (2850 foreign tourists) in September, 183208 (2686 foreign tourists) in October, 158778 (1642 foreign tourists) in November and 105724 tourists including 1380 foreigners visited Kashmir Valley till 21 December this year.
The maximum number 3140 of foreign arrivals to Kashmir was reported in August this year. Out of over 22 lakh tourists, nearly 19,000 foreign tourists visited the Kashmir valley this year. [KNT]