Guest Post by Bradistan Calling
The government has decided to celebrate the year 2007 as ‘Visit Pakistan Year‘.
Tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world. It can bring employment, opportunities and recognition. Pakistan is one of the best kept secrets of the tourism industry. Posts on ATP - on our various hidden tourist gems, our history, our culture and heritage, etc. - are examples of all that Pakistan has to offer. Everyone has their own ideas on Pakistan and pakistaniat; but ATP has demonostrated our ‘unity in diversity.’
ATP is the right forum for discussing how we can make “Visit Pakistan 2007″ a success.
What avenues can be explored for participation and promotion of Pakistan. How can we 
attract tourists to Pakistan in 2007 and beyond? What can institutions like the national flag carrier (PIA) do to become a calling card for Pakistani tourism and hospitality? What role can the media play in this? And what can Pakistanis abroad do?
If those Pakistanis who live abroad decide to take ‘Visit Pakistan 2007′ seriously, others will surely follow.
Bradistan Calling is a proud Pakistani in Bradford, West yorkshire (Little Pakistan).
Hi,
I’m from Poland and I’m going to Pakistan in February. Yes, I’m afraid a little bit (the only new that come to Poland about Pakistan is about terrorism etc…), but I believe that it will the journey of my life. All people who visited your country earlier was very enthusiastic and they just love it, they are more trustworthy than newspapers ;)
Hi, good topic. I have been wanting to ask this question for a long time so here goes. Does anyone know of a good book about Pakistan that would be good to give someone who has little to no knowledge about Pakistan? I’m looking for something (to give others) that may be like a travel guide but does not have to be; however, it should be reflective of the REAL Pakistan rather than about the nonsense surrounding Zia/Nawaz/Bhutto or Al Qaeda or similar topics.
speaking of travel and role of media, I would like to mention an awesome documentary series by actor Rehan Shaikh “Travel Guide of Pakistan”. That series was awesome and it was all due to present different sites of Pakistan in lovely manner.
I found a travel article written by the Guardian about a trip to Pakistan’s Northern Areas. The writer describes her experience visiting the Kalash tribe. It’s quite good and gave me some hope that our toursim prospects could improve in the future.
http://travel.guardian.co.uk/article/2007/jan/13/s aturday.adventure.pakistan
Adnan, I am still waiting for you to reveal what “crappy things about Pakistan and Islam� Daniel Pearl was in Karachi to write. The Internet has failed to point me to the “crappy things� you have mentioned.
[quote post="515"]“You delibrately/cleverly/wickedly omitted that line to put some weight in your baseless rant.�[/quote]
You have accused me of everything under the sun for merely pointing out that your condemnation of Pearl’s murder was NOT unconditional. By alluding to “crappy things� in your comments, you have only ended up justifying the end he was meted out.
As far my “Arabic� knowledge, I am content at not knowing anything about it, when you are ready to dismiss Pickthal and Yousafali out of hands on the basis of your superior knowledge of the language. Was not it you who stated that there will not be any streams of wine (or wine in any shape) in the Islamic paradise promised to the faithful (http://karachi.metblogs.com/archives/2006/12/new_ year_balls.phtml) and that the understanding of other theologians was incorrect as compared to yours. You said:
[quote post="515"]“Jay: As I clearly mentioned that when arabic source is present, I dont need anyone else whether its asrar or pickthall. *nuff said*�[/quote]
Maybe one way to answer this is by starting from thinking about why WE visit the places we visit. What do we look for there, and then working backwards?
“Visit Pakistan Year 2007: What Can We Do?”
How about painting a truer picture?
http://gedroshian.wordpress.com/2007/01/12/visit-p akistan/
I believe Pakistan has a lot to offer to every body but it has to be properly “packed” and marketed. I will not go through the list here since most of us know about the mountains and the rivers and the cities etc. etc. In order to attract tourists we need to offer more than that. First these places have to be developed and readily accessible. Some are, most are not. Then what to do when you get to these places. This is what is called “packaging”. Then a potential tourist has to be educated and enticed at where he himself lives. We do not have any such cultural outposts world wide, where as we should have them. About our people. They also have to be “educated” to be tourist friendly. Western people do not wrap up their person like we do. That is their culture. Our people have to be taught not to gawk and stare at the female tourists particularly our men. A simple smile will win more friends than stare. About the image of the country. Those who have been to Pakistan they love her and will like to go back again. The negative image comes from the media. We do very little to counter that. Our emotional involvement with Middle East politics and fanaticism of some of our folks have made us a target of the Western press particularly with regard to Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Then there is a barrage of some time subtle and often not so subtle anti-Pakistan propaganda from certain neighboring country. There are many odds against Pakistan to develop a sustainable tourist industry. Some are self induced while other are by those who do not like us for one reason or other. But then again the opportunities for us are limitless too. We could do it if we put our collective heads together.