Snow fills Kashmir resort again with tourists

GULMARG, India (AP) – Snow is on its knees in the pastoral city of Gulmarg, or “flower meadow”, on the high plateau of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

With its white blanket, the idyllic hill station sees tourists once again filling their hotels and skiing, planting and traveling its Himalayan landscape.

The strong influx of tourists is a dramatic change for the disputed tourism industry in Kashmir, which has faced double scoring. of the coronavirus pandemic and the harsh restrictions on civil rights imposed by India in the region in August 2019.

Gulmarg was developed as a resort by the British almost a century ago, and the region’s eternal attraction to foreign visitors has made it a year-round destination. In summer, tourists meander through evergreen meadows, ravines and wooded valleys. In winter, they snowboard and hike on the largest ski slope in Asia.

The end of 2019 of Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status and an unprecedented security cut have turned Gulmarg into a ghost town, an illustration of the region’s economic ruin. The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries set the region’s economic losses at $ 5.3 billion and about half a million jobs lost by August last year.

But the worst was yet to come. In March last year, Indian authorities imposed a harsh blockade to fight the coronavirus, although they stopped traveling abroad.

However, the pandemic made Indians reconsider their own vacations. Once the snow covered the hill station last month, they decided to travel to Gulmarg when otherwise they could have gone abroad. And for the first time in 15 months, hotels are sold out by the end of February.

“No one is worried about the virus. Everyone feels free, “said Meenu Nanda, 38, an Indian tourist.