Over two lakh tourists visit Jammu and Kashmir in 2016

Jammu, Mar 19: Over two lakh domestic and foreign tourists have flocked to Jammu and Kashmir this year, up from the corresponding period of last year.

"As far as tourist arrivals is concerned, as of March 18, 2,16,252 tourists have arrived in the state, of whom 5,524 were foreigners", an official spokesman said today.

He said that Governor N N Vohra, who is Chairman of the Shri Amarnath and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Boards, reviewed various important matters relating to tourist arrivals in the State and the two pilgrimages in a meeting held here.

The governor said that the pace of tourist arrivals in the past two months had been quite satisfactory, keeping in view that in the corresponding period in the past year there were 82,376 tourist arrivals, including 4,494 foreigners.

It was noted that the total registration this year, in the first 17 days since registration commenced, is far ahead of the figure in 2015 which stood at 37,536.

"It was also noted that the advance registration via the Pahalgam route is slightly higher than by the Baltal route and that this conforms to the traditional pattern", he said.

Regarding round-the-year Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Yatra, the Governor was informed that this year the pace of this pilgrimage was about the same as in 2015.

"As up to March 18 this year 9,74,927 pilgrims had paid obeisance at the shrine as against 9,43,089 in the corresponding period in last year", the spokesman said.

PTI