TANGMARG: At the frozen waterfall at Drung, tourists from different parts of the country are crowding around it, taking photographs and recording videos as the site emerges as a major winter attraction.Drung, part of the Gulmarg tourist circuit, was among several destinations closed after the Pahalgam terror attack last year. It reopened in Nov and since then, the area has seen a steady revival in tourist activity.“We came here mainly to see the waterfall,” said Gansham, a tourist from Maharashtra who has been in Kashmir for three days. He, along with his family, is staying at a hotel in Tangmarg and visiting nearby locations. “Most people come to Kashmir in summers but we wanted to see snow. So we chose winter. I don’t regret it even though locals say there has been less snowfall this year,” he said.His wife said she was seeing a frozen waterfall for the first time in her life. “We were not sure whether the children would enjoy winter visit to Kashmir, but it turned out to be a very good decision,” she said. “We will stay two more days and hope to see fresh snowfall.”Several key tourist sites, including Drung, were shut after the Pahalgam terror attack as part of heightened security measures. While many tourist destinations continue to remain closed, many like Drung have been reopened.J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah has been advocating reopening of all tourist destinations, saying the current situation does not warrant prolonged closure of tourist spots. Talking to reporters in Gulmarg last month, the CM had said Kashmir had faced far more difficult circumstances in the past and even 1990s tourist destinations were never closed.Scores of local youths were seen ferrying tourists on snow scooters from Tangmarg to Drung.In Gulmarg, legislator Farooq Ahmad Shah today inaugurated heli-skiing and said it reflects that people have faith in Kashmir’s winter tourism potential. “Heli-skiing attracts some of the highest-spending skiers within the country and outside. They come specifically for this activity. I consider it as a positive development and I hope it will give wide publicity to Kashmir’s tourism sector,” Shah said.During the winter season, local entrepreneur and veteran skier Billa Majeed Bakshi, with a fleet of two helicopters, has been ferrying tourists to the breathtaking Sunshine Peak, at an altitude of 14,000 feet, from the Gulmarg bowl for the past two years. Bakshi said the launch of heli-skiing this winter will boost tourism and attract high-spending skiers to Gulmarg.Director of tourism, Syed Qamar Sajad, also said the steady tourist inflow shows growing confidence in Kashmir as a winter destination. He said most hotels, particularly in Gulmarg, are fully booked.“We are not sharing numbers due to many reasons, but since the launch of winter festival in Dal Lake and the Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) conference last month, there has been a marked improvement in tourist arrivals,” Sajad said.He said Gulmarg Gondola is witnessing heavy rush, with visitors coming from across the country. “All our hotels in Gulmarg are booked. These are good indications for the coming months,” he added.Nasir Shah, chairman of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), Kashmir chapter, said snowfall in higher reaches helped in influx of tourists with about 50–60 per cent of visitors arriving between Dec 10 and Jan 10. “With joint promotional efforts by all stakeholders, including two back-to-back roadshows in Kolkata and Ahmedabad, increased social media campaigns by the tourism department and hundreds of tour operators travelling across the country bookings have begun to pick up in good numbers from February onwards,” Shah said.He said CM Abdullah’s visit to Mumbai this week to interact with tour and travel operators is expected to further improve tourism.
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