Tourism in Kashmir began with the Mughal emperors, who built summer gardens in Srinagar from 1619. British visitors under Dogra rule created the houseboat in the 1880s because they could not own land. Hindi films from 1961 to 1983 made Kashmir India's honeymoon destination. Insurgency from 1989 stopped tourism, and it has been recovering since the late 1990s.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1586 | Akbar brings Kashmir into the Mughal empire |
| 1619 | Jahangir lays out Shalimar Bagh |
| 1846 | The Treaty of Amritsar begins Dogra rule |
| 1885 to 1888 | The first tourist houseboats appear |
| 1927 | A ski club opens in Gulmarg |
| 1961 to 1983 | The Bollywood years, from Junglee to Betaab |
| 1989 | Insurgency begins and tourism collapses |
| 1998 and 2005 | The Gulmarg Gondola opens in two phases |
| 2007 | The tulip garden opens in Srinagar |
| 2025 | The first direct train reaches Srinagar |
The Mughals: Kashmir as a summer garden
Akbar took Kashmir in 1586. His son Jahangir came back many times and treated the valley as a summer retreat. Shalimar Bagh was laid out in 1619. Chashme Shahi followed in 1632 and Nishat Bagh in 1633, the latter built by Asif Khan, brother of the empress Nur Jahan. Jahangir also visited Gulmarg and collected wild flowers there for his gardens.
Living on the water is older than the British houseboat. The Mughal record Ain-i-Akbari describes a two-storey boat that Akbar had built on Dal Lake for court gatherings.
The French physician François Bernier reached Kashmir with Aurangzeb’s court in 1665. His letters were among the first detailed European accounts of the valley.
Where to see this era today: Shalimar Bagh, Nishat Bagh and Chashme Shahi in Srinagar, and the gardens at Achabal and Verinag on the way to Pahalgam.
Dogra rule and the British: houseboats, golf and skiing
The Treaty of Amritsar in 1846 made Gulab Singh the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. The Dogra rulers did not allow outsiders to buy land. British officers wanted summers away from the heat of the plains, but could not build houses. They lived on boats instead.
Local boats called doongas were enlarged and fitted with rooms. Accounts differ on who was first. M.T. Kennard is credited with an early houseboat in 1888. A Srinagar shopkeeper, Pandit Naraindas, finished a boat called the Kashmir Princess around 1885 and turned houseboat building into a business. By the 1920s, Kashmiri owners were renting houseboats to visitors.
Gulmarg grew in the same years. The British laid out three golf courses there, and in 1927 they founded a ski club that held races at Christmas and Easter. Walter Lawrence’s book The Valley of Kashmir, published in 1895, brought more visitors.
Where to see this era today: a night on a houseboat on Dal Lake or Nigeen Lake, and the golf course in Gulmarg.
After 1947: Bollywood brings Indian travellers
Hindi cinema did for Indian travellers what British travel books had done for Europeans. Junglee came out in 1961. Kashmir Ki Kali, directed by Shakti Samanta, followed in 1964 with Shammi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore on Dal Lake. Jab Jab Phool Khile in 1965 made a houseboat owner its hero. Bobby, Kabhi Kabhie and Silsila kept the valley on screen through the 1970s and early 1980s.
By one count, close to 100 films were shot in Kashmir before 1989. The 1983 film Betaab was shot in a valley near Pahalgam, and that valley has been called Betaab Valley ever since. For a generation of Indian couples, these films made Kashmir the first choice for a honeymoon.
Foreign visitors
Through the 1970s and 1980s, houseboats on Dal and Nigeen hosted travellers from Europe, North America and Australia. Many stayed for weeks. After 1989, several governments advised their citizens against travel to Kashmir, and foreign arrivals fell sharply. Interest has returned slowly. In May 2023, Srinagar hosted a G20 tourism working group meeting.
1989 and after: the collapse
Insurgency began at the end of the 1980s and tourism stopped almost overnight. Film crews left. Only four Hindi films were shot in the valley between 1991 and 1999. The houseboat fleet shrank as well. About 1,500 boats were on the lakes and the Jhelum in the early 2010s. By 2021 fewer than 850 were left, partly because of a ban on building and repairing them.
The revival
New attractions came first. The Gulmarg Gondola opened its first phase in 1998 and its second in 2005. The tulip garden in Srinagar opened in 2007 and drew about 3.5 lakh visitors in spring 2026. A new film policy brought crews back, and officials say more than 300 films and series have been shot in Jammu and Kashmir since. In June 2025 the first direct train reached Srinagar.
The recovery has not been smooth. An attack near Pahalgam in April 2025 killed 26 people, most of them tourists, and arrivals dropped. Reports through 2026 show a strong spring and a weaker summer.
See every era in one week
One trip can cover all of it: a morning in the Mughal gardens, a night on a houseboat, the golf course and gondola at Gulmarg, and Betaab Valley at Pahalgam. Our Kashmir Grand Circuit follows that route.
Questions and answers
Who started tourism in Kashmir?
The Mughal emperors were the first regular visitors. Akbar took Kashmir in 1586, and Jahangir laid out Shalimar Bagh in 1619 as a summer retreat.
Why does Kashmir have houseboats?
The Dogra rulers did not allow outsiders to buy land. British visitors in the 1880s lived on enlarged local boats instead, and these became the houseboats of Dal Lake and Nigeen Lake.
Which Bollywood films made Kashmir famous?
Junglee (1961), Kashmir Ki Kali (1964), Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965), Bobby (1973), Kabhi Kabhie (1976), Silsila (1981) and Betaab (1983). Betaab Valley near Pahalgam is named after the last one.
When did tourism in Kashmir decline?
Tourism collapsed when insurgency began in 1989. Recovery started in the late 1990s with new attractions such as the Gulmarg Gondola, which opened in 1998.
Sources: The Wire (history of tourism in Kashmir; houseboat numbers, 2021), Outlook Traveller (houseboat history), Greater Kashmir (boats and boatmen of Kashmir), J&K Arts Foundation (houseboats of Kashmir), Deccan Herald and Daily Excelsior (films shot in Kashmir), The National (films before 1989), Zee News (tulip garden footfall, 2026).