AHMEDABAD: Jammu & Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah, attending a travel fair organised at Gandhinagar on July 31 appealed for greater tourist footfall from Gujarat.
He credited Gujarat, Maharashtra, and West Bengal for driving tourism to the Valley over the last 30 years.
Speaking to the media at Ahmedabad airport ahead of a tourism fair, Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said, “If you look at the last 30–35 years, the maximum number of tourists to J&K have come from Gujarat, Maharashtra, and West Bengal. My team and I are here to promote J&K tourism, and we sincerely hope to welcome a large number of visitors from Gujarat in the coming season.”
On the recent Pahalgam terror attack, Abdullah added, “We cannot rule out an intelligence and security failure; someone is accountable for what happened. Though the accused has been neutralised, the lack of clarity and responsibility on the security lapse is concerning.”
In one of the deadliest extremist strikes in Jammu and Kashmir in recent decades, 26 tourists, including several from Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, were gunned down in a brutal ambush at Pahalgam, a scenic hotspot often dubbed the “Mini Switzerland of India.”
Among the victims were Shailesh Kalthia from Surat and Yatish Parmar from Bhavnagar, along with his young son Smit Parmar. The attack not only shattered lives but also dealt a crippling blow to Kashmir's tourism economy.
Panic spread swiftly across Gujarat, with many families abruptly cancelling their scheduled trips to the valley. Even seasoned tourists who visited Kashmir annually chose to stay away this time, triggering a sharp nosedive in footfall and revenues.
Tourism, which contributes nearly 7-8% to J&K’s GDP, is the lifeline of the region’s economy, employing over 2.5 lakh people directly. More than 1,500 houseboats on Srinagar’s iconic Dal Lake and countless hotels, guides, drivers, and small businesses depend solely on tourist inflow.
The annual tourism industry, currently valued at ₹12,000 crore, had been projected to soar to ₹25,000–30,000 crore by 2030. But the terror strike marked the beginning of a dark phase, unravelling years of growth.
This disruption hit just as Kashmir had started experiencing a boom in tourism post-COVID. From 34 lakh visitors in 2020, the numbers had surged to 1.13 crore in 2021, 1.88 crore in 2022, 2.11 crore in 2023, and 2.36 crore in 2024 including over 65,000 foreign tourists.
Now, in a strategic move to rebuild trust and revive inflows, Omar Abdullah is making a direct outreach aimed at reconnecting with the Gujarati tourist base that once played a pivotal role in driving valley tourism.