Recent disturbance in Kashmir has impacted tourists' plans for almost two years⁠⁠⁠⁠

The Kashmir crisis, born out of the encounter of Burhan Wani, has once again led to a sharp fall in people looking at Kashmir as a tourist destination. It was after a long time that people had started to visit Kashmir after decades of militancy and violence.

As per travel operators, if the ongoing tension doesn't improve by December this year, this will be impacting Kashmir tourism for as far as the summer of 2018.

"It is unfortunate that the finest tourist destination of the country which was slowly recovering after a generation of violence and terror has been affected this way. Our sales to Kashmir have gone down sharply from last year. Itineraries are getting changed to Auli for skiing, further north for trekking and regions like Shimla, Mashobra and even Bhutan," Rakshit Desai, MD, FCM Travel Solutions, told ET.

Travel operators also understand the situations of people who had booked holidays in Kashmir but had to cancel their plans after the tension. While on one hand OYO Rooms is not charging any cancellation fees and is offering refunds to such customers, Cox & Kings is offering them alternate plans to Himachal, Rajasthan and Andamans, while also providing 100% refunds.

Even the airline companies like Air India, Jet Airways and Indigo had announced no charges on cancellation and rebooking for Srinagar-bound flights in July.

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