Travel magazine Lonely Planet has ranked Kashmir as the world's second most romantic destination.
Highlights
- Officials hope the tag will attract even more tourists to Kashmir
- Around 4,000 tourists arrive in Srinagar daily
- Lonely Planet names Switzerland the world's most romantic destination
The season of romance is back in Kashmir and that too quite literally. Leading travel magazine Lonely Planet has ranked the state as the best romantic destination in India.
Known as the paradise on Earth, Kashmir has been ranked as the world's second most romantic destination, only next to Switzerland.
Tourists visiting the Valley say it's this romance in the air that brings them back here.
The perceptions of unrest in Kashmir hasn't stopped tourists booking Shikara boats to cruise Srinagar's Dal lake - a picture postcard of romance.
Efforts by successive governments for past many years to make Kashmir a safe and comfortable tourist destination are paying off. Around 4000 tourists arrive in Srinagar daily.
"We came here in 1999. Now, after 18 years, I have come again with my kids" said Jayesh Daga, a tourist from Mumbai." It's really beautiful. You can't find a better place than this," said Mr Daga
Before militancy struck, Bollywood romedies milked the Kashmir landscape and the Valley also benefited from the traffic the films generated. Now Lonely Planet's 'most romantic' tag has revived hope.