Tourist Hotspot Gulmarg Hit by Alarming Surge in Fraud and Counterfeit Tickets

by Syed Shadab Ali Gillani

SRINAGAR: In the Kashmir division of the UT, cases of cybercrime and online fraud have been surging with great intensity, causing distress to not only individuals but also organizations and sectors.

In a shocking incident, 11 tourists from Gujarat were apprehended in Gulmarg, the globally acclaimed ski resort located in North Kashmir, as they attempted to sneak through the cableway Gondola using counterfeit and altered tickets.

The authorities were previously stunned when they caught 28 tourists from Mumbai in April, who were found with bogus Gondola tickets in Gulmarg. It was later revealed that these tourists were provided with fake tickets by their tour operator in Mumbai.

In an official statement, a spokesperson of Jammu and Kashmir Cable Car Corporation (JKCCC) said that the ticket scanning team of Gulmarg Gondola Project caught a group of 28 passengers from Mumbai at the scanning point of Gulmarg Gondola station. “These passengers were carrying edited fake tickets through their tour Manager Makrand Anand Ghanekar S/o Anand Ghanekar of Mumbai,” reads the statement.

Miscreants sell fake Gondola tickets aiming to ruin the reputation of the tourist site, affecting citizens involved in Gulmarg tourism. Locals now want the ticketing system converted back to offline mode to limit illegal sales.

President Guide Association Gulmarg, Manzoor Lone, said that online tickets affected 80 percent of the livelihood of tourist guides in Gulmarg. Lone said that online ticketing has hampered their ability to support themselves. People working as tourist guides in Gulmarg and at ticket counters, who were accommodated by offline ticketing, are now facing the consequences.

“Earlier we used to have 30% of the quota, but when the system was switched to online mode, the quotas were removed, which resulted in many problems,” he claimed, “that when the system was converted to online one, we were not taken into account.”

Presently, there are 918 people who are all enrolled members of the Gulmarg Guide Association. “As of now, offline ticketing is also happening, although Gulmarg officials have been referring to it as VIP quota. There are 400 offline ticket reservations. Due to their inability to cope up with the situation and make a living out of it, some guides have been compelled to engage in black marketing of tickets, though we are against them and don’t support such acts,” stated Lone.

Manzoor claimed that though this issue has been discussed with the higher authorities of the J&K UT, no action was taken.

A tourist guide, on grounds of anonymity, said, “I and many other guides like me, we are facing the brunt of the online ticketing system, and we want the government to look into this matter as soon as possible.”

Despite multiple calls, Ghulam Jeelani Zargar, CEO of the Gulmarg Development Authority and Managing Director of the JK Cable Car Corporation, did not respond.