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Recently by Taji
Touring our neighbors
Our part of the world is full of beauty and has landscapes of all varieties. It is a pity that we do not have sizable tourism industry. Even if we exclude any possibility of foreigners visiting Pakistan, the domestic tourism is also insignificant. We prefer to go to the concrete jungle of Dubai for weekend, but not to our own beautiful valleys. What was left of tourism has died with the Taliban war.
I envision a time where Pakistan would have safe roads and railway links across the country, and everybody is able to explore our land and heritage in peace and comfort. There would be budget holidays for students and people with limited income, and pricier deals for others, so the wonder of travel is within reach of everyone. When I visited Malaysia, and it is a great country, I realized that Pakistan in terms of terrain and variety could have much more to offer and yet we are nowhere on the tourism scene. Even Pakistanis do not travel much within their own country; I went to KL rather than Gilgit, didn’t I? I would have loved to be traveling on the Karakoram highway though.
Can I be over optimistic? No harm in dreaming right? I would like to travel (again with safety) to my beautiful neighboring countries of Iran and India. Just buy a train ticket and hop on, like you do on the Euro Train, affordable, hassle free and fun. Why can’t we have a SAARC train? I want to explore the beauty of South India and smell the gardens of Isfahan.
And why can’t these dreams become true? Well because my friends our nation is hostage to the myopic and corrupt politicians, apathetic bureaucrats and of course the belligerent warlords.
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Pakistan is a unique country with a varying landscape_ the only one of its kind with extensive geographical and cultural diversity. Variation of the kind that ranges from a coastal belt more than 1000 miles long to 108 peaks that are more than 7000 metres (many of which remain unexplored to date). Out of the fourteen heighest peaks of the globe four are located in Pakistan.Some of the longest glaciers of the world like Baltoro and heighest or 2nd heighest plains of the world ( Deosai ) are situated in Northern Areas.
Then we have the places that were home to some of the most ancient civilizations of the world. Namely Harrapa, Taxila , Moenjodaro and Swat.
Following his visit to Skaradu, I was recently having a conversation with a European gentleman who has been to five continents of the world so far. He was of the view that the beauty and landscape here is unique and unmatched.
I guess I am one of those blessed persons who had the opportunity to travel and hike extensively through length and breadth of our country. Its a shame that despite having such immense potential we have failed to develop our tourism industry.
Then its the perception that goes against us. I have recently been to Gilgit again and trust me the areas remains one of the most peaceful_ far from any sort of trouble. But there was visibly a drastic cut in the number of foreign and local tourists for obvious reasons.
I have traveled thrice on KKH from Islamabad to Gilgit and beyond and its an amazing experience. Something I would like to do again and again.
A very valid point. It was indeed painful to see how the Malaysians(when I visited there in 2007 ) were smart to ( taking nothing away and meaning no offence )sell their pretty ordinary stuff and landscape with right blend of packaging, branding and marketing to earn huge amount of foreign exchange. But what I realized was that they had the leadership, the vision and the commitment to turn things around and no wonder they were able to create that outstanding perception that makes their tourism thrive like anything.
Having all said and done, security concerns for one and indifference and complete lack of effort to promote tourism is enticing the local visitors to hunt for foreign options_ let alone inviting and attracting foreign tourists.
Taji
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