Gilgit-Baltistan has witnessed at least 20 flood incidents during the current monsoon season, killing at least 25 people and causing estimated losses of Rs25 billion, officials said.

Government spokesperson Faizullah Faraq told Aaj News that last year nearly one million tourists visited the region, but this year the number has plummeted.

“Hotels are empty. Tourism sector has been completely crippled,” he said.

“In the past two years, hotels were fully booked during this season, with no rooms available anywhere. But today, all 31 rooms in my hotel are vacant. On some days, only one or two rooms were booked,” he said.

Faraq revealed that 90% of advance bookings for July and August had been cancelled.

“It’s the same everywhere. Many in the industry are now considering letting go of seasonal staff hired months in advance because there’s no business to pay their wages.”

Gilgit-Baltistan, with a population of around 1.7 million, welcomed over a million tourists last year, according to the regional tourism department.

Faraq said rehabilitation work is underway in flood-affected areas, including the restoration of the Karakoram Highway at Gulmit in Gojal, where passenger vehicles on both sides are stranded.

People are being ferried across via makeshift wooden bridges.

He warned that climate change had “altered the face of Gilgit-Baltistan,” with rising water levels, riverbank erosion, and frequent landslides making restoration efforts difficult.

“Construction on waterways, indiscriminate mountain cutting, and unregulated building destroyed the environment. Now nature is taking revenge,” he said.

Flooding has coincided with the fruit harvest season, but orchards are facing severe water shortages.

“Agricultural land is eroding. Gilgit-Baltistan is losing its own soil,” Faraq added.

He said tourist inflows were further hit by recent incidents, including a surge in the Hunza River near Gulmit and Gojal, and flooding from the Shishper Glacier in Ahsanabad, which have kept sections of the Karakoram Highway closed to all traffic.

In Baltistan’s Shigar district, six locations on the Skardu Road have also been blocked by floods.

“These disasters have devastated tourism, causing losses worth millions, while locals are struggling to cope with the economic fallout,” he said.