Pahalgam terror attack: 6 out of 10 to cancel Kashmir travel plans

Beleaguered Kashmir is looking at a tourism apocalypse, with the summer season set to be washed out thanks to the mindless terrorist attack in Pahalgam targeting tourists on Tuesday.

A LocalCircles survey conducted after the attack found that out of Indian domestic tourists who were planning to visit the once ‘Heaven on Earth’ this year, as many as 62 per cent have decided not to go, saying they were now “cancelling plans/bookings.”

The attack in Pahalgam saw nearly 30 tourists murdered in cold blood, and was possibly the first time tourists were targeted en masse like this in the insurgency-infested Valley.

The larger domino impact of the attack on tourists is multifold—starting with the body blow to the tourism ecosystem in the cash-strapped state. Jammu and Kashmir was hoping that its once-bread-and-butter tourism industry would bounce back strongly as it had shown signs of after the pandemic lockdowns were lifted.

Tourism influx had been pretty strong over the past three years, not just from other parts of India, but also from abroad, despite several leading Western nations having advisories in place warning against visiting the troubled region.

By some estimates, there are about 2.5 lakh local Kashmiris who work directly and indirectly with the travel and hospitality industry in the union territory. The region also features some 3,000 hotel rooms big and small, along with the 1,500 stay options available aboard shikhara/houseboats on the Dal Lake, which is itself a big tourist attraction.

According to LocalCircles, “the fear of more terror attacks targeting tourists is likely to keep away many people from visiting Kashmir is a real possibility.”

In fact, when the survey further asked the larger population, just 3 in 10 surveyed said they were likely to visit Kashmir sometime in the next three years, with another 3 in 10 saying they would decide based on how the government handles the situation.

The survey conducted by LocalCircles received more than 21,000 responses from about 361 districts across the country.

India