Srinagar, Aug. 10 -- By Zainul Abi Din Raina

Kashmir's tourism numbers look impressive. Visitors come, hotels fill, and officials celebrate the totals. But look closer at where the money actually lands, and the picture darkens considerably.

The people who built this industry, the travel agents and tour operators who spent decades designing routes, arranging stays and keeping tourists safe through some genuinely brutal years, are being squeezed out of the very economy they created.

The problem starts with a basic misunderstanding of what tourism success looks like.

Kashmir needs visitors who stay longer, spend more and put money back into the local economy. A large crowd of tourists who spend almost nothing locally does not build prosp...