Pahalgam attack leads to massive cancellation of hotel, flight bookings

The Pahalgam terrorist attack has dealt a major blow to Jammu and Kashmir’s tourism industry.

Travel and tour operators have reported that people have started cancelling bookings for hotels and flights for J&K, particularly the Kashmir region, en masse.

In recent years, tourism had rebounded in Kashmir after prolonged shutdowns after the abrogation of Article 370 and then the yearslong slowdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the industry has now got a major blow as security concerns are now expected to prevent tourists from going to Kashmir.

Read our full coverage of Pahal terrorist attacks here

Terrorists killed at least 26 people in the Baisaran area of Pahalgam in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday afternoon. Witnesses and sources said that terrorists initially opened indiscriminate fire and then singled out non-Muslims and shot them. This is the worst attack in J&K in many years.

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Tourists’ exodus from Kashmir

Kashmir in summer months usually attracts tourists from north India, but bookings are now being cancelled.

Ashish Sharma, who runs Delhi-based Skylink Private Limited, told The Indian Express that all tours for the next 10 days have been cancelled.

“At this time of the year, most bookings are from northern states, Gujarat and West Bengal. With such an attack happening, panic spreads among people. All of them have called and cancelled their hotel and other bookings. All the people who were planning to travel by road have cancelled their trips. Some people who were going by air called to cancel tickets, others must be trying to cancel online,” said Sharma.

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Furqan Bashir of Hangout Holidays Kashmir said, “Out of the 10 tours which were scheduled for tomorrow, seven have already been cancelled. Almost all tours scheduled in April have been cancelled. Everyone is calling to cancel their bookings.”

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One Kashmir-specific travel agent from Delhi told the newspaper that bookings till June are being cancelled.

“We had a tour of nine people departing for Srinagar, Gulmarg, Sonmarg and Pahalgam tomorrow morning. They called as soon as news of the attack came and cancelled their trip. We are getting calls from people who had booked with us till June. For us, May and the first week of June is the busiest time. Over the past four years, the number of tourists going to Kashmir increased and we have been handling up to 40 tourists per day in mid-May. There is a lot of panic now. I don’t think we will have more than a handful of tourists this year,” said this travel agent.

Air India runs special flights, offers full refund

Air India has announced that it will offer full refund for bookings on Delhi-Srinagar and Mumbai-Srinagar routes till April 30.

Air India has also announced it will run two additional flights from Srinagar to Delhi and Mumbai on Wednesday.

The Srinagar to Delhi flight was scheduled for 11:30 AM and Srinagar to Mumbai flight is scheduled for 12:00 noon.