Tourism Takes Hit

For over three years, tourism in Kashmir has been consistently on the rise. So much so, it became not just a symbol of the prevailing normalcy but also underpinned it. In 2024, 2.95 million tourists visited Kashmir - 43,000 of them foreigners up from 2.71 million in 2023 and 2.67 million in 2022. This year, the government expected to beat this record but the Pahalgam attack has suddenly brought it down to a trickle.

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In the Valley, hotels, houseboats, and tour operators, once fully booked for the summer season, are now scrambling to offer discounts of up to 70% after mass cancellations from anxious tourists. This sudden collapse in tourism, a sector that had flourished in recent years, thanks to a lull in violence, threatens to hit the livelihood of a large number of people deeply dependent on visitors drawn to Kashmir’s snow-capped peaks, pristine lakes, and lush Mughal gardens. This even as the booking sites show deep price cuts, but the tourism stakeholders have littl