SRINAGAR: The severe power crisis in Kashmir is causing inconvenience to the tourists travelling to the Valley and has also impacted the tourist footfall. The tourist stakeholders say if the power crisis continues then it will have a major impact on the winter tourism in the Valley.
President Travel Agents Association of Kashmir, Farooq Ahmad Kuthoo said the ongoing power crisis in the Valley has caused some inconvenience to the tourists as well.
Kashmir is facing a severe power crisis with the metered areas facing 4-8 hours daily power cuts and non-metered areas facing 8-12 hour power cuts. The situation is grimmer in the rural areas.
“Tourists come to Kashmir from warm places and they need proper heating facilities in the hotels or houseboats on their arrival here. They are facing some inconvenience as the hotel owners cannot run the generators for 24 hours due to high costs,” he said. According to Kuthoo, the power crisis has also impacted tourist arrivals to the Valley.
“Tourists returning to their places after spending some days in the Valley tell others about the situation here,” he said adding there have been some cancellations of bookings by the travellers due to the power crisis.
Kashmir Houseboat Owners Association (KHOA) General Secretary Abdul Rasheed also admitted that the power crisis is causing inconvenience to the tourists.
“A group of tourists had booked a houseboat in Dal Lake and were scheduled to stay there for a night. But with no electricity they cancelled their stay on the houseboat immediately,” he said.
“The inconvenience caused to tourists due to the power crisis is bringing a bad name to the Kashmir tourism industry”.
A spokesman of hotel owner bodies KHARA-KHAROF stated that there are cases of tourists cutting their stay short and returning to their home towns, leading to bad publicity.
“On one hand, authorities make all efforts to woo tourists and on the other hand, they fail to provide a regulated power supply. The hotels have to use generators to provide uninterrupted power supply and it is proving to be unfeasible,” he said.
The hotelier bodies expressed fear that if the power situation does not improve, then they will be left with no alternative but to refuse fresh bookings.