Tourism – the untapped potential of Pakistan

Better late than never

China is now another major entrant in the tourism sector. Thanks to the rapid economic growth of China, Chinese tourists have doubled to 120 million annually with a global spending of US$215 billion, which is more than the annual GDP of Qatar

Like many other untapped resources, tourism is also such a hidden resource of Pakistan which we have never harnessed to its true potential. Tourism helps the economy in many ways e.g. by increasing foreign exchange reserves which we severely need, by giving impetus to the services sector which then has then a spillover effect on many other sectors of the economy. Due to increasing global incomes, a reducing disparity between global North and South and digitalisation of the economies, tourism spending globally is ever increasing. The world’s total tourism spending was worth US$2691.3 billion in 2015 according to the world travel and tourism council. France, USA, Spain, China, Russia, Thailand and Greece were the most visited countries by international tourists.

China is now another major entrant in the tourism sector. Thanks to the rapid economic growth of China, Chinese tourists have doubled to 120 million annually with a global spending of US$215 billion, which is more than the annual GDP of Qatar. Similarly, Shanghai is one of the most visited cities by international tourists. Among other top ten are Bangkok, London, Paris, Dubai, New York, Singapore and Istanbul. Even in India, the tourism industry is worth $44 billion.

Tourism can be of three types. One is tourism for leisure or entertainment, second is tourism for religious purposes e.g. pilgrimage or visiting religious sites and third is tourism for health. Other than tourism for leisure, India’s health tourism industry is estimated to be worth $600 million as healthcare in India is cheap and people from all the world especially western countries go there for cheap and effective medical treatment.

With the increase in per capita incomes of Pakistanis and comparatively better availability of disposable incomes, there has been a sharp increase in local tourism as well. According to PTDC, local tourism has seen 25pc growth in the last year, which shows the potential of the sector and how eager Pakistanis are for entertainment/leisure activities despite the non-availability of any specific or special activities for tourists at the popular tourist spots of Pakistan.

But unfortunately, we have been unable to attract any significant number of foreign tourists in Pakistan. According to the biennial report of the World Economic Forum, Pakistan ranks 125^th in term of foreign tourists. One might argue that the reason is poor law and order situation but this is not the right argument as according to this logic there must be a large influx of foreign tourist before law and order situation started getting deteriorated in 2000s but we can observe from data that foreign tourists were a rarity even in the 90s.

One of the primary reasons why we have never been a popular tourist spot is our inability to brand our country as a lucrative destination for them. And the reason behind it is our identity crisis. We have been unable to define ourselves till yet as to who we are and how we are different from India, the land which we were a part of since many centuries. India defines itself as one of the world’s most ancient civilisations with an aura of spiritualism surrounding it. China is the Middle Kingdom with a clear identity. Similarly, Dubai and Egypt represent authentic Arab culture. But who are we? We do not know ourselves and because we do not own our identity, we have been unable to form a unique selling proposition around our country for international tourists.

Countries are also like brands. When a tourist thinks about a country a certain perception or image appears in his mind and that is the country’s brand image. In order to make our self a seductive brand for foreign tourists we should define ourselves first and build our brand according to our identity. For example, Malaysia brands itself as “truly Asia”. Similarly, we can brand our self as “authentic Asia”. We are one of the oldest civilisations of the world. And here one can experience a unique blend of both Central Asian and Indian culture. In fact, we can also take help from our customers i.e. tourists on how we can brand our country. For instance, a French women recently visited Pakistan and after going back she wrote in her blog that Pakistan is the best place for experiencing “raw and authentic Asian culture and cuisine” and listed Pakistan as the sixth must visit destination for any traveller. But, on the contrary, she also got her visa after waiting for four months. No ordinary tourist would wait for so long.

We will need to market such efforts in an out of the box way to international tourists. For instance, in today’s digital world travel bloggers are an influential community with millions of followers at social media and they influence a lot of potential tourists

The second reason of dearth of tourism in Pakistan is lack of activities. When a tourist visits a destination, he or she wants some memorable activities associated with that place. For example, in Dubai there is Desert Safari, Arabian Dance, etc, along with experiencing the world’s tallest building and shopping. If you go to South East Asia there is scuba diving, para sailing and a host of other activities associated with the sea. Similarly, in Turkey there are many interesting activities associated with the Ottoman Empire and yacht or cruise trips, etc. But in Pakistan, we have few activities for tourists other than showing them some historical places and some good food.

We need a little bit of creativity and imagination to turn Pakistan into a tourist heaven. Just like India developed a Royal Tourist Train we can also develop a complete luxury train tour, travelling all the way from Gwadar to Islamabad stopping at every important destination and bringing plethora of activities for tourists. For example, we can develop all sea related activities at Gwadar, starting the tourist train journey from there. From Gwadar, the train can go to Karachi showing them important places, then the train could stop somewhere in Cholistan where they can experience a luxury night in a desert with authentic Baluchi barbeque and some Baluch or Seraiki Dance e.g. Jhoomar. Then the train can move to Lahore showing them historical places, some stage drama about Anarkali with palatable food making its next stop at Jhelum where they can have a cruise dinner in River Jhelum, live a night in a model Punjabi village, enjoy authentic Punjabi food, etc.

We will need to market such efforts in an out of the box way to international tourists. For instance, in today’s digital world travel bloggers are an influential community with millions of followers at social media and they influence a lot of potential tourists. The tourism ministry can make a contract with these bloggers, invite them to Pakistan on a free visit for the proposed train and ask them to write about their Pakistani experience and recommend it on their blog.

The third reason is negative media reporting about Pakistan and an absence of a soft image. We need to build a soft image of the country by creating and promoting soft events which build a positive image of the country in the international media e.g. celebrating Basant or Besakhimela and promoting them internationally.

The fourth reason is the difficulty for foreign tourists in getting Pakistani visa. Pakistan usually adopts a reciprocal approach for visas requiring an invitation letter from a Pakistani in many cases. This policy should be changed and visa approval made easy especially for those countries from where Pakistan has no direct security threat.

Of course, the deteriorating law and order situation has been a major factor in the recent decline in already non-existent number of foreign tourists who used to visit Pakistan for mountaineering, etc, but despite the recent improvements in law and order, international tourist influx will still not improve if concrete and measurable steps will not be taken to boost tourism. With the advent of CPEC, a window of opportunity is opening up for Pakistan in the sector of tourism as well. Even if we are able to attract only a good chunk of Chinese tourists it would be a good start.