A tourist goes skiing in Gulmarg. (File picture)

Srinagar, March 28: Kashmir’s tourism industry may still be reeling under last year’s militant attacks on the visitors, but the New Year has offered hopes of a quick recovery. Over 4,000 foreign tourists visited Gulmarg, the skiers’ paradise, this winter and many more are coming, officials said.

“We received two all-women groups, some from royal families from Bahrain. They stayed here for several days, did a lot of shopping and left with some beautiful memories,” added Sarmad Hafiz, joint director of the state tourism department.

More encouraging is the interest shown by participants at the International Tourism Brouse in Berlin — the world’s largest tourism mart — held in the first week of March.

“We showcased the tourist potential of our state by showing films, distributing written material and organising road shows. They (participants) displayed great interest in Kashmir,” said Farooq Ahmad Shah, director of the department.

“Two things we are selling in a big way to foreign tourists are golf and skiing, at a cost which is just a fraction of what they spend in Europe. The cost appeared fascinating to them.”

The authorities have already started heli-skiing this year where choppers drop skiers on the highest Apharwat peaks in Gulmarg.

The industry is particularly banking on tourists from West Asia and the Far East. “A lot of people from countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Japan are already coming here and many more are showing interest,” said an official

Buoyed by the response, the state government has lined up a series of promotional events through participation in the Arabian travel mart in Dubai, the Bahrain tourism expo and road shows in South Korea, Japan and China.

“The reason we are banking on these places is because any violent incident in the state has a big impact within the country. This is not the case in foreign countries, where such events do not get so much publicity,” said an official. “But this does not mean that our interest in domestic tourists is less, and we will do whatever we can to woo them.”

A series of militant attacks in May 2006 had killed around a dozen tourists, pushing down their number to around 4.5 lakh — two lakh less than the preceding year.

The official said the state government is making every effort to improve tourism infrastructure, with new hotels and roads coming up.

“The work on four-lane roads leading to Gulmarg and Pahalgam is going on at full pace,” he said.