Srinagar, Dec 31 (KNS): Director Tourism Kashmir and Managing Director, J&K Cable Car Corporation, Syed Qamar Sajad, on Wednesday said that Kashmir’s tourism rebound, following a short recession phase in footfall, has entered a period of renewed confidence with tourist arrivals, market movement and travel sentiment now matching the peak footfall recorded in April 2025.
Speaking with Kashmir News Service (KNS), Sajad said that the recovery is the outcome of sustained outreach, ground-level stakeholder coordination, and seasonal support through winter snowfall, with a parallel emphasis on environmental protection and high-altitude health safety regulations.
He said major tourism upgrades, particularly at Affarwat, are already mandated for 2026. “The current tourist rush is the same as it was in April,” he said.
On being asked about the speed of recovery, Sajad said the ‘recession’ in Kashmir’s tourism was a temporary slowdown triggered by an incident that briefly dented traveler confidence, leading to a short slump in bookings and footfall before revival measures restored momentum.
He said the six months that followed this phase were focused on a wide-spectrum confidence restoration campaign, spanning domestic markets and foreign travel circuits, driven jointly by administrative outreach and stakeholder alignment. The effort, he said, was not to generate a new tourism impulse, but to repair a disrupted sentiment curve.
“We worked on rebuilding tourist trust at both national and international levels. The results are visible today, not just in footfall, but in the way travel sentiment has shifted,” he said.
Dismissing the idea of tourism being a single-agency domain, Sajad said it is a distributed economic ecosystem where recovery reflects a synchronized revival of livelihoods.
The formal tourism architecture, he said, includes the Tourism Department, J&K Cable Car Corporation, hotel and hospitality bodies, registered adventure tourism operators, and administrative and security agencies that coordinate for destination clearance, emergency response mapping and operational safety.
The informal tourism economy, he said, comprises local guides, photographers, ski and snow-gear rentals, sledge and snow scooter operators, pony walas, artisans, market vendors, mid-station helpers, food kiosk owners, and last-mile tourism workers who shape tourist experience through direct engagement.
“Tourism here functions like a chain, every link matters. When tourism revives, employment revives. When footfall rises, families dependent on tourism see stability return,” he said.
Asked whether the recovery was purely the result of government campaigns, Sajad said that tourism’s rebound was equally shaped by public and private-sector coordination, including self-driven service improvements by hospitality and transport bodies.
He said hotel associations worked on guest comfort protocols, service delivery benchmarks and hospitality perception upgrades, while on-ground service providers ensured a frictionless last-mile ecosystem for visitors.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
The Tourism Department, he said, amplified this through national outreach and global promotional loops. “The campaigns helped. But the real shift happened when stakeholders delivered visible improvements on the ground,” he said.
Sajad also said that Kashmir’s tourism relationship is a centuries-old hospitality memory, rooted in cultural exchange, spirituality, trade and inherited host-guest confidence, long before tourism became a policy-driven sector.
“Kashmir has always engaged with the outside world through culture, learning, movement and commerce. Tourism is not an industry we adopted recently, it is part of Kashmir’s civilizational identity,” he said.
Describing winter snowfall as a natural tourism accelerator, Sajad said it triggered inquiries, advance bookings, ski interest, sledge movement, and gondola ridership, giving Kashmir a renewed edge in national winter tourism markets. “Snowfall didn’t just beautify Kashmir, it mobilized Kashmir."
On being asked why tourists are allowed to stay longer on Affarwat, the phase 2 of Gandola in Gulmarg, Sajad said that Affarwat sits at 14,000 feet altitude, where temperature drops sharply, oxygen levels fluctuate, and winds can reach 130 km/hr, making longer halts risky without adequate infrastructure and acclimatization.
“Many visitors come from warmer regions and rush upward without acclimatization. At high altitude, acclimatization is not optional, it is mandatory,” he said.
Sajad further said that allowing large groups to sit longer at Affarwat disrupts the evacuation cadence, leading to simultaneous descent pressure and congestion. “If 1,000–2,000 tourists halt at the top together, they will attempt to descend together. That breaks movement rhythm. Our operations are built on balance, sequencing and safe rhythm,” he said.
Speaking on the employmentgeneration of cable car in Gulmarg, Sajad said the gondola ecosystem sustains 700+ service providers every day, working in regulated shifts and batches. “This system creates jobs, it does not shrink them,” he said.
Sajad said that 2026 will focus on Infrastructure strengthening, Tourist health safety grids, Decongestion, Expansion of destinations, Home-stay onboarding, Border tourism scenic corridors, Cleanliness outsourcing and raising tourist satisfaction index
“Kashmir accommodates all traveler segments, from helicopter charters to road-budget travelers. Our aim is to improve hosting capacity for every category responsibly,” he said.
On environmental policy, he said a 60,000-tree plantation and ecological protection drive was launched at Gulmarg to preserve tourism’s natural backbone. “Polythene must be phased out with a pragmatic, community-linked approach. Clean environment is the foundation of sustainable tourism,” he added.(KNS)