Hard time finding tourists for Kashmir; Bengal operators jittery

KOLKATA: Over 1.5 lakh tourists from West Bengal visit Jammu & Kashmir every year. But many who had made arrangements for their Kashmir trip or had plans to go there are now reconsidering them because of the recent terror attack that killed 44 CRPF personnel in Pulwama of J&K.
Tourism business in Kashmir valley is likely to suffer a massive jolt this summer as a number of tourists from the state now plan to visit popular north Indian destinations like Himachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand.
Tirupati Special tour operator has been in this business for over 40 years. Owner of Tirupati Special, Ashim Chakraborty, said, "We had planned to visit Kashmir on March 30 with a 20-member-team. Now do not what will happen as many had called to either cancel the trip or to change it to Himachal."
The famous Kundu Special tour operator of Kolkata used to conduct Kashmir tour. But since last 5 years, they have also stopped visiting Kashmir.| Read this story in Bangla
'This will change', believes Tashi Tundup, an employee of Kolkata's Jammu and Kashmir Information centre in Kashmir Art Emporium at Kolkata. He said, "It will be okay in few months' time."
The J&K tourism department in collaboration with Association of Kashmir Operators (AKTO) had organised a travel show in Kolkata. About 200 travel agents from across West Bengal participated in the show according to a tourism department statement.