Tourism brings in a large amount of income into the local economy in the form of payment for the goods and services needed by tourists. It’s very important industry in terms of boosting the economy of a country.
Tourism industry also helps a lot in developing healthy relations between different countries. Mankind always had an urge to explore everything. As a result, tourism has become one of the largest industries in the world. Pakistan particularly has a lot of potential regarding tourism because of its diverse and well-preserved culture; from the ‘Do Darya’ in Karachi and Gwadar Port in Balochistan to the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore and beautiful valleys of the north like Hunza and Sust. Every part of Pakistan has its own culture and language which makes it even more interesting.
According to a report by World Economic Forum, the direct contribution of tourism industry in Pakistan in year 2015 was Rs328 million constituting to 2.8 percent of the total GDP. The government is making continuous efforts to promote tourism in Pakistan and they predict that by the year 2025 tourism will contribute Rs1 trillion to Pakistan’s economy.
Yet that's not the best outcome because the government has not been able to take the tourism market seriously in Pakistan despite some work being done. There is still a lot of room for improvements in the tourism business. There is a need to maintain the tourism attraction and preserve the heritage. Putting the tourism industry at low priority has led to no development in tour industry and historical sites. It has been estimated that the public and private sectors have gradually earned less income from the tourism market causing less investment and innovation within the industry.
This has led to several historical sites and landmarks to depreciate over time and the lack of international standards have left many sites in poor states. The latest budget showed that less money was being spent on tourism industry and more on other less important markets.
Some tourist corporations have started working and encouraged the government to attract tourists to Pakistan by working on several projects in the tourist market: building and maintaining the road and air networks. The maturation of human and natural resources can also contribute to the development of the flabby industry.
Development of tourism industry in Pakistan can bring a great change to the economic status of the country. That's because tourists have a wide range of budgets and tastes, and a wide variety of resorts and hotels can be developed to cater for them. For example, some people prefer simple vacations, while others want more specialised holidays, quieter locations, family-oriented holidays, or niche market-targeted destination hotels. So in contrast to that, we can develop a lot of different hotels or restaurants to meet everyone's demands.
Now all of that cannot work out if people outside Pakistan don't know about it. Advertising campaigns need to attract tourist by developing holiday packages especially designed to explore the greater regions of the country. In this era of technological advancement we can advertise anything pretty easily on the internet on a very high level and it can reach out to everyone in this way.