Putting Pakistan On The Map
A renewed boost of self-esteem seems to have returned to Pakistan’s government with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s bold initiatives for ease of entry into Pakistan for foreign tourists. The aim is to ultimately convert a tedious visa regime into a seamless, paperless process for the citizens of 175 countries, beginning with a pilot e-visa project aimed at the US, UK, Turkey, the UAE and China.
Though the duration of the pilot project is still uncertain, new countries are likely to be added to the e-visa eligibility list and apart from certain sensitive regions, tourists will be free to travel anywhere in Pakistan. This is frankly revolutionary coming from a country that has issued city-specific visas for the last fifteen years.
Additionally, Khan’s announcement that Pakistan will aim to maintain friendly ties with all countries in its immediate region is an approach similar to Turkey’s 2002 “zero-problem with neighbours policy” wherein it removed visa restrictions from its immediate neighborhood. As a result, the country’s tourism industry blossomed, Turkey’s national carrier began declaring profits year after year and the currency soared.
The Pakistan government’s new visa policy has come after feasibility studies and deliberations over the last six months with aspirations to tap into its enormous potential in four sectors: adventure or mountain tourism, halal tourism, religious tourism and beach tourism.
The role of the foreign ministry and its embassies and consulates around the world has been expanded to include investment and tourism promotion. It is no secret that the bureaucracy requires stringent reform and the easy provision of online visa services will eliminate in large part the notoriously inept middle-men working in our embassies abroad.
But visa ease is just one part of the tourism solution. Access, hospitality and safety infrastructure as well as general local awareness all play a huge part in motivating visitors.
Airports in Pakistan’s scenic northern and northwestern areas for direct flights must become compliant to greater air traffic and runway landings for larger planes. For now, direct flights to some of the best tourist destinations on offer in the country are available solely from Islamabad.
Pakistan needs to do a better job of convincing the world it has a unique tourism advantage over other, perceptively “safer” countries in its region.
Naveed Ahmad
Then there are the challenges of the as-yet fledgling hospitality industry. A regulatory body must oversee hotels, restaurants, tour-operators and car-rentals if the government intends to reform the country’s image abroad, attract investment and create employment. To give credit where it’s due, Pakistan has significantly improved service provisions for mountaineers, though some routes like the world famous trek to K2’s base camp remain critically under-developed, with close to no facilities for hikers along the arduous route.
Roads in northern areas of tourist-interest need safety demarcation, signs and street-lights as well as emergency relief from common landslides. There is also a deficit of communication infrastructure with a near-absence of cellular connectivity. So far there are neither active emergency helplines nor public booths in areas of low or zero cellular coverage.
For those contemplating visiting a country confronting decades’ worth of war imagery on international media, security will naturally be the first concern of tourists well before applying for their e-visas. Pakistan needs to do a better job of convincing the world it has a unique tourism advantage over other, perceptively “safer” countries in its region.
Last but far from least is the sensitization of the general public and locals towards foreign women. Quite apart from the minimum standards of decency one expects from civilized countries, hotel management, staff and locals at large must be educated in respecting the differences in cultural sensibilities if women and families are to feel safe from harassment in our country. It will be a mental overhaul in many ways, and one that should be part of a much-needed, wider national education drive to make people aware of what constitutes harassment against women.
Today, Turkey and the Maldives, both Muslim majority countries, are two of the world’s best loved tourist destinations- the gold standard of tourism ethics. Both have successfully adapted to become part of a highly profitable global tourism industry with advantages that far surpass only economic value. In fact, it is real people-to-people contact that puts a country organically on the map, and on the world’s radar as a place of progress.
• Naveed Ahmad is an investigative journalist and academic based in the GCC with a career in writing on diplomacy, security and governance. Besides other honors, he won the Jefferson Fellowship in 2000 and UNAOC Cross-Cultural Reporting Award 2010. Twitter: @naveed360
