Srinagar, April 13 -- 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.

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