September 10, 2006	Sunday	Sha'aban 16, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 9: Tourism industry in Pakistan is a failure because the policy-makers have the wrong target in their minds: the foreign tourist.

In countries where the industry thrives, the policy-makers recognize that it is the indigenous population which supports the tourism infrastructure.

But in Pakistan, the Ministry of Tourism runs after a few foreigners and ignores fostering tourism and other cultural activities for the country’s 160 million people.

Murree is a perfect example to show that tourist economy needs domestic and not foreign tourists to develop and thrive. Every year one sees new hotels and restaurants springing up in Murree. A survey of the tourists who visited the Grand Canyon site in the US during 2003-04 found that 83 per cent of them came from within the country and the rest from 41 countries.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) estimates that one tourist creates five jobs. It does not say the tourist has to be a foreigner.

“As long as our definition of tourism is Gora (white man), tourism will never improve. Foreign tourists are just the cherry on the cake not the cake itself,” said Tour Promoter Asad Khalil.

He said the ministry officials went on foreign tours to promote tourism in international markets and wasted millions. “Why don’t they go to Sialkot or Faisalabad which are cities of billionaires?”

He said the Tourism Marketing Plan 2006 was “99.99 per cent foreign based”. It hardly aimed at promoting domestic tourism. “Unlike the foreign tourist, our people are not guided by ‘travel advisories’. Why are we running after ‘goras’ who get scared even if you boo?”

Laws which discourage foreign tourists from coming to Pakistan need to be revised. “They can’t take pictures of bridges and airports. Whenever they go to the northern areas, a security personnel sticks his head into the vehicle and asks if there is a gora in the jeep. Tour promoters around the world promote bridges like the San Francisco, Sydney Harbour or the Hudson bridges,” he said.

When senior officials were contacted for their comments, none of them wanted their names to be mentioned, but they gave biting comments. “There exists no mechanism to record the number of tourists entering Pakistan. The actual number of tourists arriving ranges from 5,000 to 10,000, “but the ministry counts everyone landing with a foreign passport as a tourist caring least if the holder of the passport is a businessman or even a Pakistani with British passport coming home to visit family. How do they assess success or failure in such a situation?”, asked one official.

Internationally, Moenjodaro is the most celebrated landmark in Pakistan, he said, asking “How many of us have visited Moenjodaro? When was the last time Tourism Ministry took school children and teachers to one of the most historic sites in the world or any tourist destination for that matter?”