The Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir is seeing record levels of tourism from millennials and young professionals to newlyweds and intergenerational families. Travel firms say that the increasing number of direct flights to Srinagar, as well as the UT’s tourism department activities, are attracting visitors, and that demand for tourism in J&K during the current summer travel season is four times what it was pre-pandemic.
In the summer, J&K is usually one of the most popular domestic tourist attractions. “With India’s heatwaves arriving earlier than usual this year, tourists are opting for summer holidays to hill stations and coastal resorts. The number of Srinagar travel search searches has increased by 17-20% month over month. Rajnish Kumar, co-founder and group chief product and technology officer at online travel platform ixigo, stated that advance bookings for the region are also increasing.
The present surge in tourism inflow into J&K is coming from a variety of locations. Vadodara, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Indore, Kochi, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Jaipur, and other tier 1-3 cities are among them.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasised the region’s tourist sector in the Union Territory’s Budget for 2022-23. Under capital expenditure for 2022-23, an allocation of roughly Rs 604.77 crore was provided for tourism and culture, which is Rs 78.61 crore more than the previous year’s Budget allotment.
