How tourism is fighting its way back in Kashmir two months after Pahalgam attack - 'not like before, but better'

Parvez Ahmad has been ferrying tourists on his shikara (boat) across Srinagar’s picturesque Dal Lake for over two decades. As is his summer routine, he waits for tourists at one of the lake’s ghats.

“Hethin hasa yin (tourists have started coming) finally,” Ahmad,50, smiles as he invites a group of tourists from Punjab to hop aboard his boat.

“But not as many as there were before the attack,” he says on June 22, exactly two months after the deadly Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed in Baisaran Valley, about 100 km from Dal Lake.

The April 22 attack in Baisaran valley of Pahalgam came at a time when the Valley was witnessing a tourism boom with a footfall that many estimated was at a fifteen-year high.

Tourism revival

The attack triggered widespread cancellations by tourists, affecting advance bookings. According to Jammu and Kashmir's Department of Tourism, the number of tourists in Jammu and Kashmir in 2024 was approximately 35 lakh, a rise from 27 lakh in 2023 and 26 lakh in 2022. About 5 lakh tourists visited the region in the first three months of 2025.

However, news agency PTI reported on April 23, citing Delhi-based travel agencies, that up to 90 per cent of travel bookings to the hilly state have been cancelled owing to safety concerns.

Two months after the attack, tourism in Kashmir is finding its feet again, albeit slowly. "It is definitely showing signs of recovery by say 15 to 20 per cent so far. You can see yourself at Boulevard, Lal Chowk, Gulmarg, Pahalgam, and other places,” Adil Khan, General Secretary, Skal International and former president of Kashmir Hotel and Restaurants Association, told local reporters in Srinagar.

Khan is right. Boulevard Road, with Dal Lake glistening on one side, is once again dotted with tourists. After a few km drive from this road stand the famed Mughal Gardens – Nishat and Shalimar – both of which saw a fair share of tourists on Sunday.

At Shalimar Bagh, most visitors were locals, though a fair number of tourists from outside the Valley had also made their way in. A family from Rajasthan asked a local woman from Nowhatta in downtown Srinagar if she could hold and play with her infant — the woman smiled and agreed.

Tourism is not the mainstay, but one of the contributors to Jammu and Kashmir’s economy. Never before have so many tourists been killed in a single attack in Kashmir’s violent past.

Kashmir Vande Bharat Impact?

Tourism stakeholders like Shikara-owner Parvez said that numbers started increasing after the new train link, which for the first time connected Srinagar with the rest of India. On June 6, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the train services from the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi (SMVD) railway station in Jammu's Katra to Srinagar, Kashmir.

“We boarded a train from Katra and got to Srinagar in three hours,” said Vijay Anand from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, after a jet ski ride with his group on Dal Lake.

The new train has been in such demand that, according to travel agents, all seats are booked until the end of July.

Others credited the re-opening of most of the parks and tourist destinations that had been closed after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack have also been reopened in a phased manner. The Jammu and Kashmir government shut 48 out of 87 tourist destinations across Kashmir Valley in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.

Bustling with activity

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Sunday that Pahalgam was 'bustling with activity' with tourists from various parts of the country competing for space with local picnickers.

Abdullah shared pictures of the crowded road of the famed hill station in rainy weather on X and said: “Today I came back to Pahalgam, which was bustling with activity. Tourists from various parts of the country competed for space with local picnickers who were enjoying the cool climate & rainy weather.” 

Hoteliers, however, said tourists visiting the hill station are mostly locals. “We have seen some improvement in bookings. But the most of the people you see on roads are locals who come on weekends and go back the same day,” said Javed Ahmad, who owns a hotel at the hill station. Javed's hotel had zero bookings on May 22, a month after Pahalgam attack. 

Last month, Abdullah took it upon himself to lead a campaign for the revival of tourism in the Valley. On May 28, Abdullah chaired a meeting of administrative secretaries and other top officials in Gulmarg health resort as part of his government’s efforts to draw tourists back to Kashmir. A day before, he held a symbolic cabinet meeting in Pahalgam, the site of the April 22 terror attack.

Pahalgam terror attack, Op Sindoor aftermath

While the new train service appears to have helped revive Kashmir’s tourism, officials told Livemint that the Srinagar airport has also seen an increase in arrivals in the last few weeks.

On April 22, the day of the terror attack, 9,235 passengers arrived in 51 flights at Srinagar airport. The number fell to 4,341 passengers on 41 flights on April 25

On May 7, India launched retaliatory strikes on terror camps in Pakistan under Operation Sindoor, during which multiple airports near the border, including Srinagar, were shut down. The Srinagar airport which closed on May 7 re-opened for operations on May 13.

On May 15, as many as 3,387 passengers arrived in 22 flights at Srinagar airport. This included 641 Hajj pilgrims who returned from Saudi Arabia in special flights.

In the past week, the airport has also seen an uptick in the number of passengers. About 4000-5000 passengers have been arriving daily. On Sunday, June 22, 4,300 passengers arrived at the airport, almost half of what the airport handled on April 22. Another 4,200 passengers flew out of Srinagar on Sunday.

Reduced flights to Srinagar

Srinagar Airport Director Javed Anjum told LiveMint that 50 flights operated from the airport on Sunday. “We used to handle about 19000 passengers daily before Pahalgam attack. This number had come to 2000 passengers post the attack. Yesterday, we handled 8000 passengers, both inbound and outbound," Anjum said.

Travel agents with whom LiveMint spoke said the number of people travelling on flights has come down since the Airlines reduced flights and are operating around 50 daily flights to Srinagar compared with over 90 they operated before the attack.

“Since there are less planes operating, the ticket fares have also gone up. As against ₹4500 from Delhi to Srinagar the rates today are around ₹8000 if you book three days ahead of your journey,” said Soleh Nazir, who runs a travel agency Liesures Stop in Srinagar.

Hoteliers seek concessions

Mushtaq Ahmed Chaya, president of the Jammu and Kashmir Hoteliers Association, said his association sought support for hoteliers in terms of interest waivers on loans for at least six months during a recent meeting with CM Omar Abdullah.

"We have also requested for relief on electricity bills and other expenses. The business is badly hit and occupancies are almost zero," he said.

Many hotels in Kashmir have been offering discounts to lure tourists. In Gulmarg, a hill station in the north of Srinagar, a four-star hotels that usually charge ₹15,000 per night has cut its rates in half. There are 82 hotels in Gulmarg, including the five-star Khyber Resort, a few four-star properties, and the rest are three-star hotels.

Last month, representatives from airlines and the hospitality industry asked the government for incentives to revive tourism in Jammu and Kashmir, which suffered badly after the deadly Pahalgam terror attack

IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Air India have requested the government to waive the user development and aviation security fees at the Srinagar airport for a year so that they could offer cheaper tickets to passengers travelling to Kashmir. At present, the airport charges a user development fee of ₹1,050 and an aviation security fee of ₹200 per traveller. These charges are included in air ticket prices.

As more tourists visit Kashmir, things are expected to improve with the beginning of the Amarnath Yatra next month. But as Ahmad says, it is 'not like before, but better than nothing’

The annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave in Pahalgam commences from July 3.

“The season will be over by July end. We won't be witnessing the pre-April tourism at least this year again. But we are still hoping for things to improve with Amarnath Yatra on the cards," he said.