Fraaz Mahmud Kasuri
In the global economy, tourism is one of the most noticeable and growing sectors. This sector plays an important role in boosting a nation’s economy. An increase in tourism flow can bring positive economic outcomes to the nations, especially in gross domestic product (GDP) and employment opportunities.
In South Asian countries, the tourism industry is an engine of economic development and GDP growth. In the same way, the impact of tourism on Pakistan’s economic growth as well as employment sector has also been quite positive and significant one especially in the recent years. According to the reports, tourism in Pakistan has increased by more than 300% in just a couple of years.
Recently, Pakistan has been ranked The Best Holiday Destination for 2020 and also declared the third highest Potential Adventure Destination in the world for 2020.
To uplift this industry in the country, the government also launched online visa services for 175 countries while 50 countries were offered visa on arrival making it easy for everybody to visit Pakistan. Due to these relaxations, Pakistan received an influx of travel vloggers who visited the country and showed the world how beautiful Pakistan is. Due to the establishment of Kartarpur Gurdwara, Sikh community from across the world also visits Pakistan throughout the year thus giving a boost to the religious tourism here in Pakistan.
In 2018, the British Backpacker Society ranked Pakistan as the world’s top adventure travel destination, describing the country as “one of the friendliest countries on earth, with mountain scenery that is beyond anyone’s wildest imagination”. Forbes also ranked Pakistan as “one of the ‘coolest places’ to visit in 2019” while The World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report placed Pakistan in its World Heritage sites, which range from the mangroves in the Indus delta, to the Indus Valley Civilisation sites including Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.
According to this report, the direct contribution of travel and tourism to Pakistan’s GDP in 2015 was US$328.3 million, constituting 2.8% of the total GDP. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the direct contribution of travel and tourism to Pakistan’s GDP in 2016 was US$7.6 billion (PKR 793.0 billion), constituting 2.7% of the total GDP. By 2025, the government predicts tourism will contribute ₨ 1 trillion (US$6.0 billion) to the Pakistani economy.
All these stats are enough to prove that Pakistan has already made its presence felt in the world of tourism and people are seriously working for the uplift of this industry. All that is needed is consistency in the performance of the stakeholders in this field.
The worst thing COVID-19 did to the sector of tourism in Pakistan is that it hit that very consistency and jolted this sector harder than expected. How can a sector or an industry go upward when it is closed for almost five months to prevent the spread of a virus?
This closure in Pakistan has caused permanent shutdown of majority of the tourism and hospitality outlets making hundreds and thousands of people unemployed. Those who are still in the business are starting from scratch as gathering new teams and infrastructure has never been an easy thing.
There are several areas in Pakistan especially northern areas where people solely depend on the tourism activities. With a ban on travel to these areas, people were forced to starve or shift to other professions to meet the both ends.
Now, when the government has announced to lift the ban on the field of hospitality and tourism, it is hoped that this sector would bounce back and tourists would start visiting Pakistan again to enjoy the most serene and loveable places on earth.
It is further hoped that this reopening would actually reopen all the windows which finally open to a beautiful, secure and financially stable Pakistan.
Courtesy: Wikipedia, NCBI
