In the immediate aftermath, tourists began departing the town, leaving streets and thoroughfares eerily deserted
| Photo Credit:
IMRAN NISSAR /The Hindu
After the Pahalgam terror attack, local businesses have begun feeling the squeeze with tour operators and hotel bookings witnessing a decline.
However, the commerce bodies in Kashmir said that the loss of precious human lives far outweighs any economic concerns.
The attack has triggered a surge in hotel booking cancellations, particularly at popular tourist destinations such as Pahalgam and Gulmarg.
In the immediate aftermath, tourists began departing the town in large numbers, leaving streets and thoroughfares eerily deserted.
Umar Rashid, Manager at Hotel Black Pearl in Pahalgam, said that all guests had checked out and upcoming reservations were also being cancelled. The hotels in Gulmarg are also witnessing cancellation of bookings, following the gruesome terror attack, killing 27 tourists including two foreign nationals.
Mohammad Sharif, a hotelier at Gulmarg, said that since morning he had received multiple cancellation e-mails from tourists planning to visit the Valley.
Tour operators, too, are reporting a flurry of cancellations with several scheduled group tours being either postponed or called off altogether.
Mudassir Ahmad, proprietor of Al-Midhad Tour and Travels, said that the attack had begun affecting the bookings. “A tour party from UP, already on their way to Kashmir, cancelled their trip after the attack,” he said.
Deploring the attack on tourists, Chairman of Kashmir Chapter Tour Operators Association of India (TOAI), Nasir Wani, told businessline that such acts of violence undermined the spirit of hospitality and peace. “We urge authorities to take swift and decisive action to ensure the safety of all visitors and residents,” Wani said.
The tourism sector saw remarkable growth in 2024, attracting a record 2.36 crore visitors, including 65,000 from overseas.
Religious tourism also thrived with 5.12 lakh devotees visiting Amarnath and 94.56 lakh making the pilgrimage to Vaishno Dev. The sector accounted for more than 8 per cent of the region’s GDP.
According to the recent Economic Survey, J&K recorded a strong economic performance with its real Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growing by 7.06 per cent in FY25. The region has also received investment proposals totaling ₹1.63 lakh crore as of December 2024, which are expected to generate direct employment for over 5.90 lakh people. However, the recent attack poses a direct threat to such investments as it may spur the investors to pull out due to security concerns.
“We are mourning the loss of precious human lives. Business is the least of our concerns at this moment,” said Javed Ahmad Tenga, President, Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The spokesperson of Kashmir Economic Alliance, Qazi Touseef, too, echoed his views when he said that human lives were of paramount importance. “Economic lives are the last thing on our minds right now.”
Published on April 23, 2025
In the immediate aftermath, tourists began departing the town, leaving streets and thoroughfares eerily deserted
| Photo Credit:
IMRAN NISSAR /The Hindu
After the Pahalgam terror attack, local businesses have begun feeling the squeeze with tour operators and hotel bookings witnessing a decline.
However, the commerce bodies in Kashmir said that the loss of precious human lives far outweighs any economic concerns.
The attack has triggered a surge in hotel booking cancellations, particularly at popular tourist destinations such as Pahalgam and Gulmarg.
In the immediate aftermath, tourists began departing the town in large numbers, leaving streets and thoroughfares eerily deserted.
Umar Rashid, Manager at Hotel Black Pearl in Pahalgam, said that all guests had checked out and upcoming reservations were also being cancelled. The hotels in Gulmarg are also witnessing cancellation of bookings, following the gruesome terror attack, killing 27 tourists including two foreign nationals.
Mohammad Sharif, a hotelier at Gulmarg, said that since morning he had received multiple cancellation e-mails from tourists planning to visit the Valley.
Tour operators, too, are reporting a flurry of cancellations with several scheduled group tours being either postponed or called off altogether.
Mudassir Ahmad, proprietor of Al-Midhad Tour and Travels, said that the attack had begun affecting the bookings. “A tour party from UP, already on their way to Kashmir, cancelled their trip after the attack,” he said.
Deploring the attack on tourists, Chairman of Kashmir Chapter Tour Operators Association of India (TOAI), Nasir Wani, told businessline that such acts of violence undermined the spirit of hospitality and peace. “We urge authorities to take swift and decisive action to ensure the safety of all visitors and residents,” Wani said.
The tourism sector saw remarkable growth in 2024, attracting a record 2.36 crore visitors, including 65,000 from overseas.
Religious tourism also thrived with 5.12 lakh devotees visiting Amarnath and 94.56 lakh making the pilgrimage to Vaishno Dev. The sector accounted for more than 8 per cent of the region’s GDP.
According to the recent Economic Survey, J&K recorded a strong economic performance with its real Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growing by 7.06 per cent in FY25. The region has also received investment proposals totaling ₹1.63 lakh crore as of December 2024, which are expected to generate direct employment for over 5.90 lakh people. However, the recent attack poses a direct threat to such investments as it may spur the investors to pull out due to security concerns.
“We are mourning the loss of precious human lives. Business is the least of our concerns at this moment,” said Javed Ahmad Tenga, President, Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The spokesperson of Kashmir Economic Alliance, Qazi Touseef, too, echoed his views when he said that human lives were of paramount importance. “Economic lives are the last thing on our minds right now.”
Published on April 23, 2025
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The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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