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).
Adnan, I am still waiting for you to reveal what “crappy things about Pakistan and Islamâ€
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.
I know of a foreigner who was here to work with a youth organization I am part of, and her friends sent her off saying “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of your family when you don’t come back” :p Thankfully she loved every minute of her one-year stay in Karachi and now extensively promotes Pakistan in her native Romania. Such are the success stories that can help us.