By Faiza Tehseen

Tourism is the most important sector of economy in Pakistan after agriculture, textile and mining, providing livelihood to many people and contributing handsomely towards increasing the GDP. Every year, foreign tourist inflows shore up the country’s foreign exchange reserves, reports WealthPK.

Talking about the recovery of tourism post-floods in Pakistan, Managing Director Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) Aftab ur Rahman told WealthPK, “Unexpected heavy rains and floods have caused a huge loss to infrastructure and livelihood in the country. This phenomenon has adversely affected almost all economic activities, especially in the Northern Areas and other tourist destinations. A huge number of people connected to the tourism industry are badly affected.

It is also a wake-up call of the nature to redesign the infrastructure and related segments to face calamities. We have to be very careful about the safety measures concerning rebuilding and rehabilitating the flood-affected areas. Constructions close to the water channels or in areas of permanent threat must be avoided. Some of the archaeological sites are also disturbed, and these must be restored. We must struggle to comply with all international safety standards so as to be able to frame a sustainable infrastructure for tourism for all of our destinations and also take preventive measures for drainage and other engineering solutions, so that such situations cease to exist.”

In a discussion with WealthPK, Mahmood Akhtar Cheema, country representative of International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) said, “Tourism industry and sites both are a unique national asset, which represents the culture and strengthens the economy. Natural disasters due to climate change cannot be avoided, but we can prepare ourselves to face them. Climate change affects all aspects related to all types of living beings on the earth e.g., prolonged winters and unusually hot weather in April and May in the past 60 years. No matter how resourceful the institutions are, it is not easy for them to mitigate when there are challenges that require a plenty of economic resources to effectively address them.

Policies to face such adversities must be practical rather than sky-high aims. Threats bring opportunities to face calamities.  It is important to reframe our future strategy to save the ecosystem and tourism industry as a multistage activity i.e., short, medium, and long-term ones. All the stakeholders must be involved for better rebuilding and security measures.”

According to the statistics issued in 2021 by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), Pakistan’s travel and tourism industry added 4.4% (PKR1,874 billion) to the national GDP. The current loss due to widespread rains and heavy flooding has deprived the country of a handsome income. This industry must be revived on a priority basis to address the economic benefits in a better way.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk