HBI Staff | Hyderabad 
After a “record surge” in tourism in Jammu and Kashmir, some politicians are also having a leisure time in Kashmir and other parts of the Union Territory, Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy said on Thursday.
He made the remarks while addressing a gathering at an event, without naming anyone.
“After Independence, the tourism footfall in Jammu and Kashmir has seen a record surge. If we look at figures for one year, in 2022, it was about 1.8 crore tourists in J&K,” the Union Tourism Minister said.
Reddy said earlier there were “hardly any tourists”, but today some politicians are “also playing there” and having a leisure time in Srinagar and other parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
“It is a good thing, people must go, it is part of our India. That is the situation today, people are eager to visit Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
Reddy was addressing a function held at the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering and Nutrition (IHM), Pusa.
Reddy last year had said that Jammu and Kashmir had registered a “record footfall” of tourists at airports and sightseeing places in the last several months due to “transformative initiatives” of the government such as the abrogation of Article 370.
In a major intervention for the tourism sector in J&K, the Union government had made a record allocation of INR 786 crore in the budget for the tourism sector there, which was INR 509 crore higher than the last budgetary allocation, officials in Srinagar had said in February 2022.
The officials had added the intent of the massive budgetary allocation was to boost tourism and allied services in the union territory. (Source: PTI)
