Tourism in Kashmir Valley: Problems and Prospects

Kashmir valley has continued to be an internationally commended tourist destination. Every year a huge number of tourists from all parts of the world visit the tourist spots of J&K. Tourism sector contributes about 6.98% to the state gross domestic product. The main objectives of the present Study are to examine the trend of tourist inflow in Kashmir valley from 1975-2015 and highlight some multifarious problems, which are to be taken into consideration as soon as possible in order to boost tourist arrival in the Kashmir valley. In consideration with these objectives, this paper involved mainly the data from secondary sources available on the subject. Various descriptive statistical measures have been used to find the averages and median positions of tourist expenditure pattern during their stay in the valley. This study found that both foreign and domestic tourist arrival showed a continuously declining trend from 1990 till 1997 for Kashmir witnessed worst years of its history due to internal disturbances. However, post-1997, tourist arrival to Kashmir Valley showed an increasing trend up to 2013 due to frequent political developments but the tourist arrival suddenly decreased once again due to uncertainty and disturbances. It is revealed from the findings that the Kashmir valley, despite its attractive scenic beauty, is lagging behind in terms of annual foreign tourist arrivals to the state itself and the country as a whole when compared with Ladakh.