Targeting tourism

The PTI’s 100-day plan has received its fair bit of criticism. To boost GDP growth, though, the two sectors the insurgent party wants to focus on – housing and tourism – indeed stand out. For one, both areas cut across dozens of other productive sectors. And two, both are characterized by robust demand that finds supply-side woefully lacking.

On tourism, surely, the PTI is not the first or only party vowing action. Neither is the vow made by Imran Khan to turn government guesthouses into recreational spots anything new. But the reaction by Miftah Ismail, who suggested that lack of adequate hotels didn’t have anything to do with tourism in Pakistan, betrays the reality where tourists, especially with families, often fail to find reasonable accommodation in key tourism destinations.

In the last few years, a host of factors has led to resurgence in domestic tourism, but in a haphazard way. Tourism experts attribute the rise to improvement in security situation, better road connectivity, and amelioration in middle-class markers. Numbers vary, but it is estimated that close to 20 million Pakistanis now visit Northern Areas every year, whereas foreign tourists, who include business visitors, are close to 2 million.

These numbers may look big, but they could be a lot bigger. Still, the hospitality infrastructure hasn’t caught up even with the existing demand. In peak season, it is common sight finding tourists asleep in their cars due to hotels filled to capacity. Local tourism experts maintain that inadequate investment in tourist accommodations is a major bottleneck to this sector really taking off.

Those hoping to create jobs and earn forex through tourism must ponder: if existing tourism facilities leave domestic tourists high and dry, what hope is there to attract foreign tourists?

Whosoever forms the next federal government would need to go about tourism development in a holistic manner, just as other regional countries have done. The federal and provincial governments will need to sit together and frame a comprehensive tourism policy that addresses both the hard and soft aspects of tourism.
The hard aspects – such as resort development (granting leases and permits for hotels, restaurants and cafés), waste management, link roads, safety & security – must be the domain of the provinces and local governments. The federal government, which needs to have more of a coordination role, should look after the softer aspects – including setting hospitality standards, quality assurance, marketing tourism destinations abroad, and expediting tourist visa approvals.

The road to earning tourism-dollars goes through satisfying domestic tourist first. A lot of investment, coordination and marketing need to be done. The government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a land where many of the country’s scenic resorts are located, took some steps in this direction, including a tourism policy and measures for tourist facilitation. This makes one hopeful that instead of paying lip service; the party will formulate a grand tourism strategy if elected in the center.