Srinagar, June 10 -- For over three years, tourism in Kashmir has been consistently on the rise. So much so, it became not just a symbol of the prevailing normalcy but also underpinned it. In 2024, 2.95 million tourists visited Kashmir - 43,000 of them foreigners - up from 2.71 million in 2023 and 2.67 million in 2022. This year, the government expected to beat this record but the Pahalgam attack has put paid to such hopes.

This sudden collapse in tourism, a sector that had flourished in recent years thanks to a lull in violence, has threatened to hit the livelihood of a large number of people deeply dependent on visitors drawn to Kashmir's pristine lakes and resorts. This even as the booking sites show deep price cuts, but the tourism s...