At least 3 million tourists including foreigners visited the picturesque Kashmir in 2024, breaking all the previous records. The authorities are hopeful that 2025 is going to witness more tourist arrivals than last year.
The fresh snowfall across the Valley especially in the tourist destinations of Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Pahalgam and Doodpathri has boosted winter tourism drastically.
All the hotels and houseboats are nearly occupied.
“The total tourist footfall in 2024 was recorded at approximately 2.95 million, a notable rise from 2.71 million visitors in 2023 and 2.67 million in 2022,” a tourism department official said.
He said 2024 was one of the best tourist seasons in the Valley.
The surge in the number of tourist arrivals, the official said, was due to many factors including adding more tourist attractions to the list.
Jammu and Kashmir government is working to develop 75 new tourist destinations, 75 heritage and cultural sites, 75 Sufism and religious sites, and 75 adventure treks for attracting more tourists to the region.
Manzoor Pakhtoon, President, Kashmir Houseboat Association said they received tourists in lakhs in 2024.
“We are hoping that in the coming time, we will have much more, as we have had great snow already. We are also getting connected via railways, and we are expecting a huge increase in the tourism arrivals. A good number of foreigners also visited Kashmir this year including those from Southeast Asian countries and Europe,” he said adding lots of foreign tourists are presently enjoying skiing in Gulmarg.
“We have a great winter going on, and it is also time for promotion so that Kashmir becomes a tourist destination. Our main focus will be the train, as every stratum of the people will visit the valley,” said Pakhtoon.
According to tourism officials, there has also been a big increase in foreign tourists’ arrivals. “As against 37,000 foreign tourist arrivals in 2023, 43,000 foreigners visited Kashmir in 2024”.
The tourism industry is the second biggest industry in the Union Territory and adds around Rs 8,000 crore to the GDP.
“It’s the real paradise on earth, we enjoyed it so much. We had heard of this but are now witnessing it in real life. It’s just wonderful. We are very happy, and we will go back and tell our families, friends, and colleagues that they should also visit Kashmir. We have made so many videos in the snow,” said a tourist, Rajesh Kumar.
He said visiting Kashmir especially during the winter months is must as the snow turns the valley into a winter wonderland.