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Gulmarg witness very low turnout of tourists this season

Abha Gupta. Dated: 7/11/2018 11:32:14 AM

ER ABHA GUPTA
Srinagar, July 10
One of the favourite destinations for tourist in Kashmir is Gulmarg. Inspite of stirkes, bandhs in Srinagar, Gulmarg seems to be quiet away from these daily chores of Srinagar and tourists come here and enjoy the peaceful meadows. But this year Gulmarg has not witnessed huge rush of tourists.
Post Burhan Wani death since 2016, the hoteliers, business men, pony walas have faced a huge loss due to less turnout of tourists. Most of the hotels are vacant, food points, dhabas are empty, pony walas are standing idle in their stands.
While talking to one of the hotelier Mushtaq Ahmed said, “since 2016 the amount of tourists tuning out in Srinagar has decreased, this year there was not much snow fall during winters, as a result no winter sports took place. Many people come here for winter sports, but this year there were no winter sports as a result our hotels remained vacant most of the times. Even during summer vacation our hotels are vacant. We are facing a lot of loss from last 2 years”.
Pony wala Javed said, “ we are poor people, our only livelihood is with these ponies. But this year very less tourist have come to visit Gulmarg as a result you can see all the ponies standing in their stands just near to the famous Shiv temple. Some local people come to visit Gulmarg during weekends and from them we are earning and it has become very difficult for us to bear expenses of our children”.
One of the restaurant “Khalsa” owner said, “ you can see all the chairs empty, very less tourist came this season, two years back you could hardly see any empty chair in my restaurant, but you can see the deserted look of this place. Local people are coming that too only in weekends”.