Promotion of tourism: Stakeholders call for optimal utilisation of fisheries sector

PESHAWAR: The stakeholders of the fisheries’ sector including fish farmers and people of the tourists’ attractive areas have called for the utilization of the potential fisheries sector for the promotion of tourism in the province and tourists’ destinations.

Recreational fishing is a major tourism activity and is integral part to the “Blue economy”.

Despite having low importance and small rates of participation in our economy but still it being an important economic activity, especially in coastal, and riverine areas, there is relatively little research on its various tourism dimensions, including its role in branding and marketing in Pakistan.

Top tourist destinations: Call for promotion of recreational fisheries

It is an outdoor activity for locals and foreign tourists, when anglers move from one region to another to go fishing. Efforts are underway to in Pakistan to promote tourism, but recreational fishing is not yet given its due importance in Pakistan for economic development in Pakistan. This aspect of recreational fishing is not properly documented in each province respective regions to ascertain this economic activity role in national economy.

Fisheries department’s officers and officials need to acquire a greater awareness of fishing tourism in their respective districts and develop effective partnerships with local tourism promotion organizational and relevant stakeholders.

Talking to this scribe, Omar Hayat Khan, an expert on aquaculture and environment said that tourism could be either first, second and third tier employment generator in the country is properly provided political patronage in recreational fisheries during summer months when the environmental conditions are conducive for the local and foreign visitors to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

It can generate revenue for federal, Provincial and local government in millions of rupees from recreational fisheries in the northern areas of Pakistan.

Sectors of the tourism business included: transportation (planes, automobiles, trains, buses, charter vehicles, helicopters, etc), accommodations (hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, campgrounds, lodges, etc), attractions (quality fishing, beaches, national parks and forests, theme parks, festivals, etc), food & beverages (restaurants, fast-food outlets, quick-stop stores, etc) typically located on the way to or in tourist destination areas, specialty retail outlets (T-shirts, souvenirs, fishing tackle and bait supply, camp supply stores, etc) and information sectors (visitor and welcome centers, web pages, travel guidebooks, promotion advertising, maps, local brochures, etc.

The federal and provincial governments have to invest for the improvement of infrastructure such as roads, airports, sewage treatment facilities in destination communities, dredging of river channels, fishing piers, boat ramps, in marine coastal belts, etc.

Understanding fishing tourism market is not possible without proper field studies of the respective areas. The field survey has to be conducted on random basis of recreational fishing license holders to ascertain the amount of money spend and day spend on fishing in the respective area.

They create positive impact on the local businesses of transport or fuel consumption, expenditure of boarding and lodging and purchases of daily use commodities as well as other out of pocket expenses during the fishing trip. The impact on local economy is positive as evident from the various expenditures incurred during the fishing trips by anglers.

Recreational fishing can be previewed as ecotourism in the northern areas of Pakistan comprising of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Balistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It provides positive economic benefits for local communities through creation of employment, importation of revenue to the local economy fishing licence fees, sales of local crafts and consumable products available.

Supporting increase of recreational fishing can maximize these benefits if angling is considered from ecotourism point of view. Supporting anglers to the fishing areas provide number of benefits to the local communities in terms of economic benefits.

This aspect needs to be addressed to attract more anglers to these remote regions of Pakistan for socioeconomic uplift of remote rural population.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024