Pahalgam terror attack: Calls for cancellation of hotel & flight bookings flood tour-travel operators
Ashish Sharma, who operates Skylink Private Limited out of Connaught Place, says that all tours scheduled for the next 10 days have been cancelled.
'At this time of the year, most bookings are from northern states, Gujarat and West Bengal. With such an attack happening, panic spreads among people. All of them have called and cancelled their hotel and other bookings,' the 50-year old operator of Skylink said.
'All the people who were planning to travel by road have cancelled their trips. Some people who were going by air called to cancel tickets, others must be trying to cancel online,' Sharma added. He arranged close to 20 tours this past week. Next week was supposed to be better with around 30 tours arranged, all of which stand cancelled now.
'Out of the 10 tours which were scheduled for tomorrow, seven have already been cancelled,' says Furqan Bashir, 36, who operates Hangout Holidays Kashmir.
'Almost all tours scheduled in April have been cancelled. Sabke phone aa rahe hai ki cancel kar do (Everyone is calling to cancel their bookings),' Bashir, whose agency gets bookings from across the country, said.
'We had a tour of nine people departing for Srinagar, Gulmarg, Sonmarg and Pahalgam tomorrow morning. They called as soon as news of the attack came and cancelled their trip. We are getting calls from people who had booked with us till June,' said the owner of a Kashmir-specific travel agency based in Malviya Nagar. He did not want to be named.
'For us, May and the first week of June is the busiest time. Over the past four years, the number of tourists going to Kashmir increased and we have been handling up to 40 tourists per day in mid-May. There is a lot of panic now. I don't think we will have more than a handful of tourists this year,' he added.
Special flights from Srinagar
Air India issued a travel advisory announcing that the airline will be operating two additional flights from Srinagar to Delhi and Mumbai on Wednesday, on social media platform X. The flight from Srinagar to Delhi is scheduled at 11.30 am and from Srinagar to Mumbai is at noon. Bookings for the flights are now open, according to the post. 'All our other flights to and from Srinagar will continue to operate as per schedule. Air India is also offering complimentary rescheduling and full refunds on cancellations to passengers with confirmed bookings till 30th April 2025 on these sectors,' the post said.
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