The announcement of the Kashmir Travel Mart 2026 has been received with the usual optimism. Stakeholders will gather, presentations will be made, brochures will be printed, and speeches will echo with words like potential, paradise, and hospitality. Wazwan will be the bar girl gyrating around the table.
And yet, the uncomfortable truth remains. Tourists do not travel to presentations. They travel to perceptions.
Then there is the illusion of promotion, and governments across the world often make the same mistake. They believe tourism is a function of promotion.
It is not. Tourism is a function of trust. We lose it every time when we swarm with protests at Ghanta Ghar; even if their reasons may be legitimate.
You can bring 250 stakeholders into a hall, but you cannot bring one hesitant family into a destination where their instincts tell them not to go.
No amount of curated networking can override a single lingering doubt. The doubt of ‘will we be safe – not just physically, but emotionally?’
The Confused Kashmir
Kashmir today suffers from a deeper contradiction than infrastructure, connectivity, or policy.
On one hand, it invites tourists with open arms. On promotional reels and sponsored slots, we promote hospitality as if we are the only ones to know it. But on the other hand, we project a psychological distance that can quietly unsettle even the strong-willed tourist.
This contradiction does not arise from tourism departments. It arises from collective signaling – right from the common people to social media inserts to politicians. The box item here will tell you how.
STATEMENTS THAT SHAPE PERCEPTION (2024–2026)
| # | Statement | By / When | Context | What a Tourist Hears |
| 1 | “I had no words to apologise…” | Omar Abdullah (April 2025) | After the Pahalgam terror attack, the CM said he had no words to apologise to tourists he had invited | Even the host feels unable to guarantee safety |
| 2 | “Tourism has to be conflict-neutral… it should not be politicised.” | Omar Abdullah (May 2025) | A reassurance that implicitly acknowledges overlap of tourism with conflict realities | Tourism exists alongside unresolved tensions |
| 3 | “Don’t do anything that alienates people.” | Omar Abdullah (2025) | Caution to authorities during protests and security actions | The relationship between state and society is delicate and unsettled |
| 4 | “Hearts have not been won.” | Farooq Abdullah (2024–25) | Repeated political articulation of emotional disconnect | Political stability may not equal social comfort |
| 5 | “People are not emotionally aligned.” | Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi (2024–25) | Expression of emotional distance between people and prevailing system | There may be a disconnect with the larger national sentiment |
| 6 | Calls for Liquor Ban Across Kashmir | (2024–26) | Political voices and campaigns demanding a complete ban on liquor in the Valley | A destination that invites you… but may not accept your lifestyle |
| 7 | “Normalcy Narrative Has Limits” | (Post-attack commentary, 2025) | Repeated questioning of durability of “normalcy” after major incidents | Stability may be temporary, not structural |
A tourist sitting hundreds of miles away does not analyze Kashmir through policy documents.
He experiences it through headlines, viral videos, political statements, and street visuals.
And what does he see? Not Gulmarg. Not Dal Lake. Not almond blossoms.
He sees anger, protest, uncertainty, and contradiction. And a grossly confused community.
Fear Travels Faster Than Beauty
Kashmir is perhaps one of the most visually marketable destinations in the world. It certainly is. No doubt in that. Except when a tourist encounters three dozen garbage dumps by the very roadsides that promise them world-class hospitality.
Tourism operates on perceived stability and spreads eventually through word of mouth.
One image of unrest travels faster than a thousand images of snow. One statement hinting at alienation outweighs ten campaigns of hospitality. One incident – any incident – can undo years of effort.
Because tourism is not rational. It is instinctive.
The Unspoken Question Every Tourist Asks
No tourist openly says it. But every tourist thinks it. “Will I be welcomed… or merely tolerated?” Not because he doubts Kashmiris, but because he has begun to hate its most vocal political voices – who speak nothing but negativity right from the assembly to the parliament of India.
When they complain Kashmiris are suffering and are mazloom, thus creating a negative portrayal, a tourist in Maharashtra wonders if a Kashmiri is suffering in his own land; of what worth is a Maharashtrian in an alien land that has drawn gigabytes of infamy through the last 3 decades. No amount of cajoling and counselling by the travel agent will work with this tourist.
This is the question that no travel mart addresses. This is the question that no brochure answers. And this is the question that determines whether a family books tickets – or quietly chooses another destination.
Political language in Kashmir often carries weight far beyond its intended audience.
Statements about alienation, emotional disconnect, or unresolved tensions may serve domestic narratives – but they travel far beyond.
To the outside observer, they translate into something far simpler: “This place is not settled.” And no tourist willingly chooses emotional uncertainty as a holiday experience.
And then comes the street theatre of Kashmir, the art of which we have mastered over the last many decades. Even when protests are issue-based, even when they are legitimate expressions of grievance, their visual impact is universal.
The Truth We Avoid Saying
Let us confront what we carefully avoid articulating. Tourism in Kashmir is not limited by lack of promotion. It is limited by conflicting messaging between invitation and perception.
You cannot simultaneously invite tourists with campaigns of warmth. And project a mood of distance or resentment. You cannot sell belonging while signalling detachment.
Tourists are not analysts. They are emotional decision-makers, who are looking for a place where they can draw some solace. More often than not, Kashmir fails them.
The Bitter Truth
Kashmir does not need more tourism events. It needs a deeper honesty about what drives tourists away.
Until the gap between what is said and what is felt is closed, no travel mart, no campaign, no slogan will deliver sustained results.
Because in the end tourists don’t go where they are invited. They go where they feel they belong.
