Tourism Industry in Pakistan has be highly affected due to the war on terror and the recent incident of Raymond Davis who shot 2 Pakistani men and than was released after giving blood money to the heirs of the killed men.
?Tours are very sensitive people and such perception of tourists created by such incidents makes it very hard to convince some one to come to Pakistan for touring.? Say Jamal Panhwar the CEO of Pakistan one of the very few surviving Tour Operators
?One client cancelled a tour of Pakistan by say that he finds it very uneasy to walk in bazaars of Pakistan where people might be relating him to Raymond Davis? Says Mr. Panhwar
Tourism has been the least of concern for the governments of Pakistan in the past and present government has continued the tradition of keeping itself aside from tourism industry. There were over 100 tour operators in Pakistan before September 2001 now there are hardly 10. The big operators like Sitara Travel have already shut down operations and have moved to central Asia.
There is no international tour operator offering services Pakistan at the moment. The local media has presented such an ugly image of the country that even the local people want to avoid traveling within the country for pleasure.
The valley of Swat which was known as the Switzerland of Pakistan has no tourists. Last year the incident of Gojal Lake which was naturally created due to a huge land slive on Hunza river had kept tourists coming from China via Karakorum highway.
Raja Iftikhan Husain a Hotelier in Gulmit says ?This year there is hope for tourists to come from china and visit hunza valley and other mountain valleys as the government plans to keep the road open depite the lake.?
The region of Gilgit Baltistan which has been blessed with their own elected government forst time in 60 years has huge potention of tourism. The mountains in this region are like no where else the towering KE Mashubrum Nanga Parbat and Rakaposhi are all high mountains going to 8000 and 7000 plus meters above sea level the climbers and mountain travelers long to see this area only if peace and stability can be assured.
?Travel & Culture services is promoting Pakistan with untiring efforts and will continue to do that despite of having no support or any applause from the government? said Mr. Jamal Panhwar of Travel & Culture Services. ?Our web site https://www.travel-culture.com ? is an encyclopedia of Pakistan it has information about every part of the country and numerous touring options too,? He added.