Exhausting vacations

Come May and people all around the world start planning holidays and then packing their bags to enjoy vacations at places where they can relax and spend quality time with their families. Whereas, for people in Pakistan, the situation remains unchanged, only providing them with more time to whine about electricity and likewise issues.
The idea for going on vacations has drastically changed during the past few years with a lot of factors contributing to its decline. People from all walks of life state various reasons for not going on vacations anymore. Ahsan Raza who works in a private company says, “People seldom choose to go for vacations now because of the expenditure it causes, not everyone can afford a vacation every year”. In a country where inflation is rising by the minute and the competition is to survive rather than to live a luxurious life it becomes almost impossible for families to go on vacations together. It is multiplying your expenses by three folds with travel and hotel expenses. Maham Mubarak complains, “The air fares are too high which discourages you in the first step itself and then you give up on the vacations idea”.
However, if you courageously plan a trip trimming your expenses for accommodation opting for staying with relatives, “your relatives aren’t very welcoming to the guests as it just increases their monthly budget,” says Yeriha Zehra.
Besides affordability, some people cannot muster the time from their busy schedules. With an average man doing a 9 to 5 job and living over a monthly salary, taking a break to relax has become a dream. “People mostly do jobs here and majority of them don’t have the concept of annual vacations so it seems very unlikely that they take days off for vacations at all,” says Amna Ameer. On the other hand the business class simply fails to find space for holidays in their scheduled calendars. Kulsoom Inam, whose father owns a construction business, complains that her father couldn’t even spare a week from his tight schedule to take his family for vacations. “It has been a long time since we last went out together for holidays. My dad doesn’t have ample time to go for vacations,” she says.
Terrorism and security issues have also deteriorated tourism in the country. People are sacred to visit the once serene and most peaceful places in Pakistan which now look more like war zones. The northern parts of the country which were a visual treat for not only people within the country, attracted a lot of international tourists, but are now mostly home to extremists. We are reminded about those areas in news when we hear about some military operation being underway in those regions. “There is disturbance almost everywhere in the country and you can never figure out where it’s safe to go,” says Sidra Qaisar. The ongoing situation in the country has forced people to think twice even before leaving their houses everyday “People are afraid to walk out of their houses, they are scared, you never know how the day might end,” comments Mohammad Rafay. And there are a few others who play the hosts rather than the guests and have relatives pouring in from different countries in the world.
Vacations are not just a way to spend good time with your family rather; holidays revitalise a person’s energy to work. With all the prevailing problems not only an important element to slow down and relax is being lost but sadly country is losing tourism and the revenue it generated once.