CHITRAL, Oct 27: This year the tourism industry experienced one of its worst years in decades, with only a few tourists visiting Chitral during the summer season, tour operators said on Saturday.

Stakeholders of the tourism industry expressed the view that increasing incidents of terrorism in the neighbouring districts of Swat and Dir were behind the slump in tourism activities.

They said a very small fraction of foreign tourists came to Chitral during summer, fuelling unemployment in Chitral. The livelihood of thousands of local people depended directly or indirectly on the tourism industry.

Due to its famous spots, Chitral used to attract a large number of tourists and the ministry of tourism had opened five hotels in different parts of the district in order to facilitate a large number of tourists who came here in the summer season every year.

The ancient Kalash people are known worldwide for their unique culture and attract a large number of European tourists every year. Mountaineers too throng the district as they plan to scale mighty peaks in the Hindukush range — the most famous among them being the Terich Mir.

Tour operators of the area said a downward trend in tourism activities was evident ever since the 9/11 attacks in the US.

They added that this year the government had included three festivals of Chitral in its ‘Visit Pakistan Year’ calendar, but activities did not witness any appreciable improvement. The reason, they said, was terrorism.

Festivals of Chilim Jusht of Kalash, Shandur Polo and Baroghil used to attract a large number of tourists, but this year even the local people did not turn up, they claimed.

A hotel owner told Dawn that he had to lay off more than half his employees due to the decreasing number of tourists. Hotel owners had to bear heavy losses because of the absence of tourists.

Some tour operators said that Chitral was relatively peaceful and the government should not bar tourists from visiting the district on security grounds. He said that only a little effort was required to give a sense of security to the visitors.

Special measures must be taken to resuscitate the industry, thus protecting the livelihood of thousands of people.