Kashmir clashes hit tourism hard

Fourth-generation houseboat owner Mohammad Azim Tuman, 72, feels helpless when reports of pro-separatist protesters stoning tourist buses pour in. Fear of losing yet another tourist season is writ large on his face as daily arrivals dip.

Kashmir is on the boil again, this time over the rape and murder of two women in Shopian allegedly by security forces. From separatists to the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP, the issue has given a fresh lease of life to people marginalised after the huge turnout in the assembly poll last year and general elections last month.

In the process, however, tourism has suffered. “Around 20 bookings have been cancelled in the past few days. Some paid double the taxi fare to leave Srinagar after tourist vehicles were stoned,” Tuman, who is also chairman of Houseboat Owners Association, said.

Tourism was looking up, but the agitation and the attacks on tourist buses, has brought things back to square one. Tourist arrival has declined sharply and vacationers are fleeing. “6,400 tourists arrived here on Saturday and Sunday. If the strikes continue, we are doomed,” CM Omar Abdullah said. 

The downslide has come at a time when the tourism sector is yet to recover from the Rs1,500-crore loss it suffered last year due to the Amarnath land agitation.

“First, it was the Taliban scare and then the polls which took a huge toll on tourism in Kashmir. Tourism had started picking up and occupancy had touched 35%, but then came the strikes and curfews,” Tuman said.

Over 1.75 lakh tourists have visited Kashmir this year so far, mostly post elections. Such was the rush that the Delhi-Srinagar airfare shot up four fold to Rs17,000 but still there were no seats available.