2 weeks Ago
Vadodara/Ahmedabad: They planned this tour for a month and were thrilled to stroll through the scenic valleys of Kashmir next month. However, Vaishu Joshi and her husband Sanket cancelled their train tickets hours after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on Tuesday. Like Joshi, many Gujaratis have called off their tour to Kashmir as they didn't want to ‘risk their lives'.
"It's disappointing. We wanted to experience the beautiful locations in Kashmir. But after seeing the horrifying images of the terror attack in Pahalgam, we immediately decided to cancel our tour.
We won't consider touring Kashmir in the near future," Vaishu Joshi, a schoolteacher from Vadodara, told TOI. Kumar Manish, an Ahmedabad-based communication consultant, said eight of us booked the tour from May 13, but we cancelled the tickets. I wanted to see the development and the changes that happened in J&K in the last few years.
But this attack on the tourists shook all of us completely," Manish said. The tour operators are worried and staring at losses over the next two months. "Most of the tourists from Gujarat have cancelled their Kashmir plans.
I have been getting constant calls from people and other tour operators who are anxious due to the uncertainty," said Haribhai Patel, ex-chairman, Gujarat Tour Operators Association. Tour operator, Siddique Gandhi, said that he has been getting inquiries about cancelling from his customers but he has asked them to wait for a couple of days. On Wednesday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued an advisory asking airlines to increase flight capacity from Srinagar and waive cancellation and rescheduling charges for passengers impacted by the crisis.
A joint statement issued by Tour Operators and Travel Agents' Association of Gujarat (TAG) passed a resolution during a meeting, noting, "An atmosphere of fear has arisen among tourists from Gujarat and the entire country involved in Kashmir tours and those going on Kashmir tours, and it is natural that no tourist can continue his Kashmir tour in such circumstances.".
