"Our main business is in the October to March period but we usually get requests for hotels and transportation now," said Homa Mistry, Travel Corp of India's Delhi branch manager.

"But this year there have been hardly any, which means when the season comes, there will not be much business," he said. On May 26, India launched attacks to dislodge guerrillas holed up in the high peaks of northern Kashmir.

India says Pakistan is backing the infiltrators. But Pakistan says it only provides moral and diplomatic support to them. Strife is not new to Kashmir. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the region since the two became independent from Britain in 1947.

For nine years, the Himalayan state has been rocked by a separatist rebellion which has killed more than 25,000people.

Kashmir is about 1,000 km away from the Taj Mahal, one of India's most popular tourist attractions. But tour operators say media coverage of the fighting was making tourists change their minds about a holiday in India.

"If the conflict does not end in the next one or two weeks, it could be very bad for the industry," said a Pacific Asia Tourism Association official.

Indian Airlines, which runs most of the flights to Leh, the main city of India's northernmost region of Ladakh in Kashmir, said the border crisis had not affected business much.

Indian Airlines operates 11 flights a week to Leh from various Indian cities. Last year, more than 22,000 tourists visited Ladakh, of which more than 17,000 were foreigners.