Last week, BR Research wrote about KPs new Tourism Policy that seeks to earn Rs50 million in the next five years (Read "KP Tourism Policy," Published on March 18, 2016). Todays discussion asks two questions - where does Pakistan stand globally in terms of tourism, and what are we doing to promote it?
Keeping aside the obvious security situation, everyone knows Pakistan is a beautiful country with more than enough scenic locations that constitute breath-taking tourist spots. With great mountains in the north, a thousand kilometers of Arabian Sea-coast in the south, and four millenniums of culture in between, theres no reason why Pakistan shouldn be one of the leading destinations in the world. Yet, it isn ; its among the bottom countries.
Pakistan ranked 122 out of 140 in the World Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index in 2013. The index takes into account 14 pillars with 80 sub-indicators. Safety and security is one of the pillars, and Pakistan comes in at 137, making it the fourth-most dangerous country to visit on the list. But of equal importance - if not more - are the other thirteen pillars that include air and ground transport infrastructure, tourism infrastructure, prioritization of travel and tourism, health and hygiene, etc. Needless to say, our score on all these is abysmal.
The only pillar that Pakistan scored well on was price competitiveness; the country is one of the cheapest destinations in the world for tourists (ranked 15th). But what good is that alone when everything else is horrid? The only thing this metric reflects is how poor the economy is!
As per the T&T Competitiveness Index report, international tourist arrivals in Pakistan in 2013 were 966,000 people, with tourism receipts amounting to $288 million. However, this was a substantial decline compared to over $358 million earned in 2011. In fact, as per a report published by PILDAT, "Promotion of Tourism in Pakistan," the position of tourism receipts as a percentage of exports has been dropping, from 1.6 percent in FY07 to 1.2 percent in FY09.
Pakistans present standing as a tourist destination is far below other SAARC countries. India has become a powerhouse in tourism, capturing 5.2 percent of global tourists and earning close to $18 billion in tourism receipts in 2012; compare that to our less-than-0.1 percent share in global tourism and paltry $340 million.
The sad truth is that tourism just isn on anyones priority list. As per PILDATs Report, there has historically not been any instance of a concentrated and structured effort to promote tourism in the country. All undertakings at the federal level either lost steam or never took off to begin with. The report lists the failures of the National Tourism Policy of 1990, the Tourism Master Plan for Pakistan with the technical assistance of the World Tourism Organization in 2000, and the revised National Tourism Policy of 2010 that showed promise but lost to the 18th Amendment.
On a provincial level, tourism has been a low-key affair as well. Since devolution, the provinces have done no better; no interest or a lack of capacity (save for KP). To make matters worse, recent and reliable data has been unavailable since devolution and the dissolution of the Ministry of Tourism.
Tourism is a near $1.3 trillion market and growing. With the security situation improving and CPEC laying the foundations for investment and trade, its the perfect time for Pakistan to bump up tourism on the priority list. Vision 2025 speaks of a National Tourism Board to be established with 50 percent representation from the private sector, and to increase the number of tourist arrivals to 2 million. Heres hoping.
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