Pure and Co-doped SnO2 hollow nanofibers were successfully synthesized by electrospinning technique. The structures of as spun and hollow nanofibers were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). We observe from the SEM images the formation of well-defined hollow nanofiber network with coarse morphology consisting of fine nanograins. The optical properties of Co doped SnO2 nanofiber was studied with the UV-Vis spectroscopy and photoluminescence. The strong emission band at violet-blue region for all the samples with different intensities confirm the presence of defects related luminescent centres in Co-doped SnO2 nanofibers. The magnetic measurement reveals that Co-doped SnO2 hollow nanofibers show room temperature ferromagnetism at the low field strengths. This may be due to the exchange interaction between the local magnetic moment of Co2+ ions and bound magnetic polarons (BMPs) of SnO2.