Around 16.2 million tourists have visited Jammu and Kashmir since January 2022, the Indian government said on Thursday, a day after Home Minister Amit Shah wound up his three-day visit to the region. Of these, two million reportedly visited the Kashmir valley, indicating a sharp improvement in the security situation in the region which witnessed over 42,000 deaths in three decades of terrorism.
"Jammu & Kashmir witnessed record footfall of 1.62 Crore (16.2 million) tourists since January 2022, the highest in 75 years of Independence," Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said.
Goyal attributed the Narendra Modi government’s "transformative initiatives and reforms" to the record number of tourists in the Union Territory.
The Indian government has announced a slew of investment-friendly reforms since it abrogated the state's special status in 2019. Besides introducing night flights to the state capital Srinagar, Delhi has also launched direct flights to Sharjah.
The Indian government said that the state has attracted around $7 billion in investment since August 2019, against less than $2 billion in the last seven decades.