Click to play videoSrinagar: Several beautiful shikaras (Kashmiri boats), anchored on the Dal Lake in Srinagar, are waiting for tourists to step in. Ghulam Nabi Sheikh, the owner of one such shikara is, however, a worried man.
The year started on a positive note, with a number of tourists coming to the valley, but with tourists being targetted by terrorists, the circumstances have drastically changed.
After the recent terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, the state tourism industry is the worst affected and the state government's efforts to revive tourism sector has not paid off so far. This has forced many hoteliers to cut jobs.
Says Ghulam Nabi Sheikh, "We come here with our shikaras but there's no work. We just sit idle the whole day."
More than one lakh families who depend on tourism for their daily bread are affected. The hotel industry employs around 40,000 people almost every year, but this year, the situation is quite the reverse.
Instead of recruitments, there are job cuts because of losses incurred in tourism industry.
Says member Kashmir Hotel And Restaurants Association, H U Mir, "It has been an extreme effect this year for the job cut has been almost 95 per cent."
With the decline in tourist traffic, the hotel and catering industries are struggling to retain the few employees that are left despite laying off quite a few already.
Despite official claims that tourism is picking up, it's a grim picture for hotel and houseboat owners and their employees.
(With inputs from Digvijay Singh Deo)
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