Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Jan 24: Amid the surge in positive cases in J&K and weekend lockdown, the restaurant owners in Kashmir are struggling hard to survive while people associated with tour and travels said that around 50 percent booking have already been cancelled.
Sheikh Feroz Ahmad president of Restaurants association of Kashmir (RAK) said that restaurant owners have been suffering from the last three years now mostly and with new restrictions of weekend lockdown they are struggling hard to survive.
“Due to the economic crunch, business was already down and elite class remains out of the valley in winter so work was already down, but weekend lockdown has further dented our businesses,” Feroz said.
Feroz said since the last few years new youth have started their cafes and restaurants but due to losses in the initial stage, they are now in depression.
“During weekend lockdown, tourists are also suffering as they find it hard to get cultural dishes like wazwan and are forced to have their lunches at their hotels,” he said.
“Our economic condition is very bad at this stage and we are unable to understand what we will pay to our employees after completion of this month,” Feroz said.
President Travel Agents Association of Kashmir (TAAK) Farooq A Kuthoo said that around 50 percent of the booking have got cancelled after cases started rising in J&K.
However, Kuthoo said that as experts predict this wave won’t last long we are pretty hopeful that it will start working normally again.
“We have started receiving enquiries again although not in large numbers but we are hopeful it will resume soon,” he said, adding that, our losses due to the third wave are quite significant.
