Mughals as Tourists

The Mughals under Emperor Jahangir were the first tourists into Kashmir but in this case it was only a royal visit, which did not lead to the subjects to follow suit and create an infrastructure for the hospitality industry.

Summer Holidays for the British in India

Colonialism led European nations to move over large tracks of land to settle with their families and govern locally acquired assets. When family members returned home, they gave description of the new lands they had visited. On the sub-continent of India when British nationals of imperial administration had to live here on a long-term basis, they got to know that the Indian Summer was unlivable for them and they sought cooler climates. Professional knowledge of having to fight the Afghans, Sikhs Dogras and the Gorkhas, led these British army officials into the Himalayas and they discovered their little Scotland. The Northern most area of the sub-continent was thus discovered and inhabited by British nationals in the period of 1825 to 1840. It was under these circumstances that tourism 1st came to this part of country & a convenient way to enter the Valley was through Uri Gorge.

Opening of Kashmir

Once having stepped into this area, missionary zeal led pioneers to undertake treks of discovery into other parts who made observations and reports prompting others to follow their route. Ladakh was first visited by the Monrovian priests sometime in 1847. The consolidation of the various minor ruling states of the region with disparate cultures and religions was held together by the presence of the British army, which supported the Maharaja of Kashmir. The events of 1947 brought a severe strain on the existing strategic arrangement.

Rise of Domestic Tourism in J&K

In spite of the fact that during the period of 1948 and 1950, Kashmir was in newspapers, this area did not interest the people of other part of the Sub-continent to visit. That is not until Shakti Samant released his film ‘Kashmir Ki Kali’ in 1956, which overnight brought the knowledge of the beautiful landscape and territory to the knowledge of the urban population of India, and the rush was on. In 1988 the Valley had been visited by a record number of over 722,000 lakhs tourists and if the percentage of annual rate had continued uninterrupted, the year of 2002 should have seen the Valley is being visited by 1.87 million people from other parts of the country. But because of uncertain law and order situation affecting the state, this ever-increasing tourist traffic dramatically fell to an unbelievingly low of 6600 tourists visiting the valley in the year 1993. It is between these two statistical extremes; an effort has been made to work out a way through to develop a new plan of revival of tourism for the State & contemplate a scenario for the next 20 years.

International Tourism Vs. Visitors to India

In undertaking such a project we have to also consider other related factors and among the most important factor to consider is the international tourist, and on why he should shift his preference from well-known European tourists centers to make his way into India. During 1990-2000 India’s share of global tourist traffic remained static at 0.34 percentage of the global share. Today in fact it has declined. In 1950 this share stood at 0.54 percent. The revolution in tourism sweeping since 1960 eventually passed by India. It is estimated that in the year 1964 one hundred million tourists moved out of their homes to visit areas located far away. This increased in 1974 to two million persons, and in 1992 a world population of seven hundred million was trekking, flying or sailing around. It was doing so beyond the intend of commerce, acquire new assets or beyond the reasons of inhospitable condition at home. Tourism was the new name given to migration for ‘rest and leisure’. India did not interest this vast population, as our share remained somewhere around 26,00,000 visitors by the end of the 20th century.

Trends of Tourism in State

Tourism is one of the State’s major industries. It has played an important role for developing the economy, particularly in the Valley and Ladakh. The industry has given jobs to a very large number of people, particularly younger generation & has generated economic activities in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in the State, which owes dependence to a large extent to this industry. An attempt in brief is being made here to give an idea of the trends noticeable in tourist’s traffic in the State. A mention has to be made on the lack of availability of data on records for various reasons. Because of this no data has been mentioned before 1976 for the regions of Jammu & Ladakh. The first known data available on tourists’ traffic into the State goes back to the pre-independent days when in 1945 the State received 37,297 “non-residents”. Its distribution regarding the destination of the visitors, is unknown. The figure is based on the recording of the entry permit of the Non-Kashmiri at the entry point of the State border posts both on the Pathankot and Sialkot side. The Partition of the Sub-continent in 1947 and the events of the 1948 disturbed the borders of the State, and all its existing data on population and demography. The first data is only now a matter of academic interest. In the availability of new data in 1951, 10,579 visitors entered the State of J&K. This figure increases to 24,455 in 1961 and to 184,790 in 1975 which shows nearly an eight time increase in the arrival of tourists in the State between firstly 1951, 1961 & a double presence in the subsequent decade Interestingly in 1951 there were only 1,246 foreign visitors and we may presume that within this small number, there would have been sizable number of representatives from the European forces of the United Nations and not true foreign tourists. There were 2,22,214 foreign visitors in the year 1975, in the post Indo-Pak war and declaration of the internal emergency in the summer season. This has increased from 1,246 in 1951. But in the context of world interest in tourism however, this figure is very negligible to any standards.