Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam witnesses spike in travellers, registers visits of over 3 lakhs tourists in past four months

Chief Executive Officer, Pahalgam Development Authority, Tariq Hussian Naik told Kashmir Life that more than three lakh tourists including 7,000 foreigners visited Pahalgam in the first four months of this year.

According to Naik, the increase in tourist footfall has brought jubilation among tourism stakeholders in Pahalgam.

Hotel occupancy rates are on the rise, Zakir Ahmad, a hotelier, told the news portal.

He said almost all hotels in Pahalgam are fully booked for the next month.

Shopkeepers, ponywalas, hoteliers and others have expressed happiness over the spike in tourist visits in the region.

Meanwhile, people are voting in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar seat, the first major polling taking place in the region since special status was abrogated by the BJP government on August 5, 2019 and the erstwhile state was also downgraded into two union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Over 17.4 lakh electorate are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 24 candidates in the seat.

The Srinagar parliamentary constituency is spread across five districts namely Srinagar, Budgam, Ganderbal in central Kashmir and Pulwama and Shopian in south Kashmir districts.

Polling began at 7 am across 2,135 polling stations in the constituency.