Jahangeer Ganaie
Pahalgam, May 13: Over one lakh tourists visited Pahalgam in April, four times more than the number of visitors from last year’s April.
As per the figures available with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), 105,666 tourists visited Pahalgam last month while just 28,721 tourists visited the tourist destination in the same month last year. According to break-up of tourists, 925,959 were domestic tourists, 124 foreigners and 12,583 locals.
This year 20,785 tourists visited Pahalgam in January, 21,049 in February, 59,274 in April this year.
Moreover, 4, 61,130 tourists visited Pahalgam in 2021, which includes 2,37,839 domestic, 316 foreigners and 2,22,975 locals.
Due to the uptick in tourist footfall, tourism players in Pahalgam are feeling jubilant as the number of tourists visiting the tourist destination is witnessing an uptick this season after many years.
Shopkeepers, pony walas and others said they earn that their livelihood and income is proportional to the rush of visitors and this year footfall is very good.
Asif Ahmad, a hotelier told KNO that the season is going quite well this time and the hotel occupancy has reached 99 percent.
An official of the tourism department told KNO that tourism season is in full bloom in Pahalgam and almost 5,000 tourists are visiting on a daily basis.
He said that about 10,000 tourists stay for night at Pahalgam and after Eid the number of local tourists visiting Pahalgam has increased manifold—(KNO)
