India has launched a special campaign and set aside a huge budget for facilities such as water-skiing and mountain climbing to attract Indian and foreign tourists to the disputed Kashmir region. The message is: the region is safe. In spite of this, the Dutch foreign ministry advises against travelling there.
The main road of Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s northernmost state, is lined with soldiers every five metres. Here and there groups of men with moustaches stand around looking bored.
“It’s strange that there are so many soldiers in the city – it means there is something going on”, says Laure (22). The French student is spending a month travelling with her boyfriend Pierre-Yves across India. The couple were not planning to visit Srinagar at first. “The French government advises against it, but we heard from lots of other travellers that it is a beautiful city and that they felt safe here.”
Mountain resorts
Hemant (35) from Delhi feels completely safe in the Kashmir Valley. He is walking in the mountains around the capital for a week with his family of five. “This is the third year we have come to Kashmir. It is much quieter and cleaner than other mountain resorts in India.”
In 1989, tourism in Kashmir came to a halt after violence broke out between militant separatists and the Indian army. Since 2000, tourists have gradually trickled back into the region once described by the Mongolian emperor Jehangir as his “Heavenly Valley”; the valley where British soldiers were sent for a holiday during the Second World War; the place George Harrison retreated to in 1966 to learn to play the sitar on a boat. In recent years, the Kashmir Valley has attracted 25,000 foreign and 550,000 Indian visitors.
Hundreds of houseboats
Tourists can be seen sitting on the terraces of hundreds of houseboats on the Dal Lake in Srinagar; in the shikaras - gondola-like rowing boats - on the lake, pursued by a fleet of market vendors selling Kashmiri scarves, saffron and flowers. Early in the morning, they visit the floating market, the mosques in the old city and the splendid Mongolian gardens with centuries-old trees and terraces overlooking the valley.
Hotel manager Faisal Bursa is optimistic about the future. The hotel his father opened in 1984 is now part of a chain of four hotels in Srinagar, a hiking and skiing resort. “The hotel closed between 1989 and 2000. But now we are full up in the high season from April until June."
Jammu and Kashmir feature in the Incredible India advertising campaign:
Guest book
Business is also good for J.M. Butt, the owner of the houseboat where George Harrison stayed in 1966. “Ten years ago, the army was fighting in my back garden. Now people from all over the world are staying at my houseboat,” he says, while he proudly shows his guest book.
The hotel manager and the boat owner have both been helped by a campaign in which the ministry of tourism has invested millions of euros. “We are building golf courses, luxury hotels and sports centres for rafting, water-skiing, mountain biking, mountain climbing, winter sports and jungle safaris. Before 1989, everyone travelling around India came to Kashmir. We can make it like that again,” says Minister of Tourism Nasir Aslam Wani.
“We are focussing on rebuilding the trust of the tourists. Bomb attacks can happen anywhere in the world, Kashmir is just as safe as the rest of India,” he continued confidently.
Militant attacks
But French tourist Laure is right: the high number of soldiers in the city means something is about to happen in Kashmir. “The huge military presence is so oppressing, that the slightest incident gets millions of people on the streets,” says human rights lawyer and activist Parvez Imroz. “As a result, the military presence provokes militant attacks."
The Dutch government also warns about the risks in the northern state. The foreign ministry advises against travelling to the region.
In a gun battle with the army at the beginning of this week, three militants Muslims and a passer-by were killed. And last summer, violent demonstrations took place in the valley following a double rape and murder trial. Dozens of people were injured or went missing.
Police everywhere
Suzanne (21) from Amsterdam was in Srinagar with two friends when it happened. “When we arrived there was nothing wrong. We were staying on a boat on the Dal Lake, but when we ran out of money and wanted to go to a bank in the city, everything was shut. There were police everywhere, on every street corner and in every tree. And that didn’t particularly make me feel safe."
The hotel manager admits there is a risk. “The slightest thing could put tourism back to square one.” Nevertheless he is optimistic. “The potential and beauty of Kashmir is greater than the risk."
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