Tourism in Kashmir is back on track after the Pahalgam terror attack, Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat claimed on Monday at the maiden National Tourism Secretaries’ Conference being hosted here.

Shekhawat, the minister of culture and tourism, credited the revival to proactive steps taken by the Jammu and Kashmir government and the Centre.

The minister’s claim coincided with reports of a huge turnout of pilgrims at the Amarnath cave, with 70,000 having darshan in just four days from July 3. Thousands more had darshan on Monday.

Shekhawat said tourism in Kashmir had stagnated after the April 22 attack but had since sprung back to life.

“I believe the way the state government has started working on this... and the Centre has also sent different delegations, ministers and organised different conferences... this confidence-building exercise will definitely be fruitful. And in the near future, Kashmir’s tourism will return to its previous momentum,” he said.

The authorities here, however, are wary of sharing the numbers, returning to a practice where such moves were avoided to prevent the “politicisation” of normalcy. In May, chief minister Omar Abdullah had taken a veiled dig at the Centre for portraying Kashmir tourism as a barometer for peace.

Shekhawat chaired the inaugural session of the two-day conference, attended by top tourism officers from all states and Union Territories.

The conference is being held at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre in Srinagar. Tourism secretaries are holding deliberations on collaborative policy-making and strategic planning, with special focus on Jammu and Kashmir.

The Union minister said he was in the Valley last month and had travelled extensively to spread the message that “Kashmir is safe”.

“I travelled to large parts of the Valley to send across the message that Kashmir is safe. Whatever has happened, we should forget it and move forward. Let us revive the tourism of Kashmir and try to take it forward as it has been growing for the last three years,” he said.

The minister said the conference had two main objectives — to provide a platform for confidence-building measures to fuel domestic tourism and explore new ideas to enhance end-to-end tourist experience.