The Attari-Wagah crossing carries the daily retreat ceremony. Seating has been expanded from 2,000 to 25,000.
It is Punjab's second-largest visitor draw after the Golden Temple, and the two together account for about 85 per cent of the state's domestic visitors.
The ceremony was suspended to the public in May 2025 during Operation Sindoor and resumed on 21 May 2025. Golden Temple footfall fell about 70 per cent in the same period, hotel occupancy in Amritsar dropped to around 10 per cent by evening, and more than 90 per cent of hotel bookings were cancelled.
Punjab's second-biggest attraction is the border itself, which means its largest draw and its largest systemic risk are the same object.
The ceremony was formalised in 1959 and has grown into a piece of choreography with a public address system, a compere, recorded music and stands on both sides. The two forces perform it together, which is the fact usually left out of descriptions of it, since the timing of the gate and the lowering of the flags requires coordination across the line every evening.
Attari village, the last settlement on the Indian side, takes almost none of the money the ceremony brings. Parking, stalls and seating are managed at the crossing itself, and visitors arrive by bus from Amritsar in the afternoon and leave immediately afterward.
The trade gate a few hundred metres from the parade ground was sharply restricted in 2019 and has been closed since the Pahalgam attack in 2025. The road it stands on is the Grand Trunk Road and Lahore is about thirty kilometres beyond it.