SRINAGAR, Apr 26: Fida Khan was on cloud 9 after receiving a record tourist bookings this year. A first-generation tourist entrepreneur, he started `Peace Holidays’ to promote Kashmir as the true `Heaven on Earth’.
Come Tuesday, his dreams came crashing down. Bookings were cancelled, and the guests he was hosting cut short their visit to return home.
“I am counting my losses. So far, I have incurred Rs four lakh loss. If the situation persists and tourists avoid Kashmir, I will incur a minimum of Rs 10 to 15 lakh loss given my investment,” Khan told The Kashmir Monitor.
Khan is not an isolated case. Tourism players are staring at huge losses given the terror attack in Pahalgam and the media propaganda about Kashmir and Kashmiris. Even the new investors who had pumped huge money into setting up new hotels and restaurants are the worst hit.
“Pahalgam was fully booked till June. Almost all bookings have been cancelled,” Javeed Basheer Burza, president, Pahalgam Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association, told The Kashmir Monitor.
Not only has big and small hoteliers suffered, every stakeholder is staring at huge loss. Thousands of people who work in hotels and restaurants on contract basis season to season are at the verge of losing jobs. Waiters, cooks, housekeeping staff, transporters and people from other allied sectors are readying to face another season of joblessness.
Kashmir is seeing a big boost in tourism this year, with 5,25,272 tourists visiting the valley in just the first three months and one week of 2025. This includes 5,14,845 domestic and 10,427 foreign tourists, giving a major push to the local economy and bringing smiles to people who depend on tourism for their livelihood.
Before Black Tuesday, Kashmir was bursting at the seams with tourists. Data accessed by The Kashmir Monitor reveals that 5,25,272 tourists visited the valley in just the first three months of 2025. This includes 5,14,845 domestic and 10,427 foreign tourists. Asia’s largest Tulip Garden in Srinagar hosted 8.55 lakh visitors from March 26 to April 24.
Last year, 34.55 lakh visited the Kashmir region, up from 6.64 lakh in 2021 and 12.11 lakh in 2016. Gulmarg Gondola, a key attraction, saw over 7.68 lakh footfalls in 2024, generating Rs 103 crore in revenue.
“The media has to play a positive role. Particularly, the national media need to be careful. If Kashmir is projected negatively, we may suffer more. In that case, our people will become jobless,” said Burza
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who also holds the tourism portfolio, commended the business community for taking a principled stand, saying, “You’ve clearly said this act was not in our name—neither have we ever supported such violence, nor will we ever in the future.”