Pakistan having troubled politics and media’s ruthless ill-reporting has huge tourism prospects. Its rich history and beautiful mountains are still are unmatched. There are still many tourists who want to see this beautiful country.
In the year 2011 we had seen the lowest turn out of tourists however since the end of the year 2011 there has been slight improvement in the situation.. The companies and tourists have started to look towards Pakistan again. The travel companies in Islamabad and Karachi have started receiving tourists specially from Japan Italy and Turkey.
?We just handled some FITs from Italy who had a great time in Pakistan, while we have a group fro Turkey coming in the early March and several individual travelers have contacted us for tour programs this year,? Jamal Panhwar the CEO of Travel & Culture Services said.
The Pakistani media specially the journalists are unfortunately very little informed and in fact they come from a society who does not travel much hence the repoting by the journalists about tourism is strictly based on guesses and gossips. “Tourism is next to nil,” Mehr Tarar, a columnist for the Daily Times newspaper, wrote recently, without realizing the journalists herself had no idea what tourists in fact are.
The officials at the government level and private tour operators are trying their best to fight this bad reporting but the hindrances also Include the local Police and security Authorities who doubt every single foreigner coming to the country being a relative of Raymond Davis.
?The tourists still enjoy the life of Pakistan and long to see places like Moen Jo Daro, Peshawar, Hunza and so on? Mr. Panhwar said ?While the efforts are being made by the private tour companies government also needs to support these efforts by providing special incentives for taxes and rebates for promotion? added Mr. Panhwar.
What is needed is a goodwill among the provincial and central government to improve the security of the foreigners I the country. Pakistan is blesses with so much for tourism that every other country can only envy such wealth. The mountains in the country are among the highest in the world. The history is contemporary to Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Gandhara art and ancient archeological sites are all in Pakistan while India who claims to be India in fact itself does not even have 20% of history that Pakistan has. The very fact that Indus flows through Pakistan makes Pakistan more India than the India itself.
The culture of the country offers a great deal of learning and pleasure. The Sufism the bazaars and the cuisine of the country are most sought after things in the world.
Recently Gulf news published an article titling ?Pakistan tourism next to nill? which is a wrong notion. They must be told that there are tourist groups still traveling in the country. The month of January alone touroperators have handled more than 20 groups from Japan and more are coming.
