TAXILA, March 26: Deteriorating law and order conditions and security concerns have adversely affected tourism industry in the country. As a result, those eager to visit historical sites here prefer staying away for obvious reasons.

In 1980, Taxila was declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) as a world heritage site with multiple locations and it had also been ranking among the top tourist destinations of the country in the past but according to the official data of department of Archaeology and Museums prevailing law and order situation in the country, it is no more a “tourists’ favourite”.

There was 3 per cent and 0.8 per cent decline in the number of domestic and foreign tourists, respectively. Official data revealed that 2,434 foreign tourists visited Taxila Museum and various archeological sites especially Sirkap and Dharmarajika Stupa located in the valley as compared to 2010 when it was recorded 2,474. The figures further showed 87,173 domestic tourists visited here last year as compared to 92,660 in 2010.

Responding to a question, an official of Archeology department  said the there was a drastic decrease because government had not organised famous Gandhara Week gala since 2008 – which used to attract religious tourists across the globe especially from Buddhist countries – due to security reasons.

Moreover, the authorities had not been observing international tourism day here for the last many years ignoring the potential it had for tourism, he added.

“The low tourist influx could be attributed to many reasons”, said a senior archeologist at federal department of Archaeology on the customary condition of anonymity. He said the bureaucratic attitude, poor planning, prevailing law and order situation, reshuffling of   Minister of tourism as well as head of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC), negative travel advisories and poor policies of the ministry were some of the reasons behind the decline.

It may be mentioned here that majority of the countries from where the tourists used to come were constantly issuing travel advisories to their nationals warning them to avoid visiting Pakistan which also had a negative impact on tourism here.

Rasheed Khan, senior information officer at Tourist Information Centre Taxila, however believed blaming security concerns was not justified. He quoted Sri Lanka, which has a healthy tourism market despite the civil war with Tamil separatists, and said it could be the most pragmatic example to follow.

“Is it the fault of our rivers, mountains, deserts and blossoming flowers that we are victims of terrorism?

“We should not stop attracting tourists and follow what Sri Lanka did,” he suggested.

It is high time that policy makers in the federal ministry of tourism and culture adopt aggressive tourism policy and shun the practice of making projects that only exist in files and never materialise.