ISLAMABAD: Eid tourism in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province surged by over 360 percent this year, with over 580,000 tourists visiting the area’s scenic spots during the five-day holidays last week, data released by the provincial tourism authority on Monday showed, as inflation eases in the economically troubled country.
Poor weather conditions and soaring inflation led to a staggering 74 percent decline in the number of tourists that visited KP last year during the Eid holidays, as per official figures, when over 125,000 tourists visited the province. The northwestern province is home to many picturesque locations and scenic spots such as Swat Valley, Malam Jabba, Abbottabad, Kaghan, and Shogran that Pakistanis from all over the country visit during the Eid holidays.
As per figures shared by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Integrated Tourism Development Project (KITE), a provincial initiative by the provincial government to develop tourism in KP, 583,452 tourists in total visited the province from April 10-14.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s tourist spots remained tourists’ first priority during Eid holidays,” the KP Culture and Tourism Authority said in a statement. “During the five days [April 10-14], over 583,000 tourists visited the tourist spots of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”
According to a breakdown shared by KITE, Galiyat saw the highest number of visitors with over 237,500 visiting the area during the five days while 151,900 visited Malam Jabba. As many as 92,470 tourists visited Kumrat Valley while 77,372 toured Naran and Kaghan areas, the data showed.
Pakistan’s inflation last year peaked at 36.4 percent during April 2023 while food inflation surged to 49.1 percent. The South Asian country’s inflation outpaced price gains even in Sri Lanka as its currency depreciated and Pakistan hiked fuel and energy prices to comply with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In March 2024, however, Pakistan’s inflation rate measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell to 20.7 percent, its lowest in 23 months. However, the country continues to face significant financial challenges, with dwindling foreign exchange reserves and a weak national currency.
