In addition to terrifying the residents of Lahore, dengue has significantly decreased the number of foreign visitors, Pakistan Today has learnt. Besides dengue fear, load shedding was forcing international tourists not to visit the city. The city was facing tremendous outages for the past week and routine life had been completely disrupted. Aviation sources at the Allama Iqbal International Airport also confirmed a significant decrease in the number of travelers coming from other countries and that there had been at least a 40 percent drop in the number of people arriving from other countries.
Travel agents also shared similar views and said that there had been at least a 45 percent decrease in the number of people coming to the city. Some of the visitors, who came to the city and fell prey to dengue, said that they would not come to Lahore next year in these months. The wedding season was in full swing in the city and people’s relative, living in other countries such as the US, UK, Australia and other countries in Europe, Middle East and Far East often came to attend weddings. Some visitors came for businesses and for buying and selling property. Since the dengue outbreak in the city, people planning to visit Lahore postponed their trips to wait for the epidemic to die away.
Recent load shedding also panicked visitors, who postponed their trips to the city until the menace of load shedding and the dengue outbreak ended. Talking to Pakistan Today, a Pakistani born US-national Khalil Ahmed from New York said that he and his family scheduled a Lahore visit for family and business-related matters in September but postponed the visit because of dengue. “I cannot risk getting infected with dengue, which has killed dozens of citizens,” he said. Load shedding had become severe as well so it was better to postpone the visit, he added.
Some of the visitors cut their visits short after being infected with dengue and vowed not to come to the city in this season next year. Another resident of New York, Shahbaz Chaudhry, who visited the city in end of August to attend a wedding but got dengue, said that he had planned to stay for an entire month but as soon he arrived in Lahore, he got dengue.
“I stayed only for two weeks and as soon my condition improved, I left Pakistan,” Chaudhry said adding he had decided not to visit Pakistan next time during these months.
An aviation industry source said that there had been a reduction in the number of people coming to Lahore. He said that normally the number of visitors coming to Lahore was higher in these months. “Last year, almost every plane was fully packed in these days but now the number of visitors decreased by around 40 percent,” he added.
Travel agent Kamran Elahi confirmed a decrease in the number of bookings. “Our partners in foreign countries have told us that there has been a decline in the number of visitors to Lahore in particular and to other cities in general,” he added. A resident of Johar Town, Muhammad Mobeen, said that his business partners were coming from the UK but retreated due to dengue and said that they would visit in November.
Another citizen Farooq Shah said that his relatives, who lived in Canada had refused to attend his wedding ceremony.