1st Post

Pakistan the beautiful

Friday, 19 January 2018

Pakistan (The Land of Beauty)

After a bone-jarring mountain journey, I surveyed the snow-capped peaks of Pakistan’s north near the Saiful Maluk lake. “It’s beautiful -- well worth the effort,” said the 34-year-old Canadian holidaying in a country better known for terrorism than tourism.
Taking a break from his job as an analyst at Jefferies in London, Cameron’s vacation last month underscores the rekindling of Pakistan’s tourism industry after a sustained military security crack-down, with annual arrivals more than tripling since 2013.
Keen to shed the image that it’s unsafe for visitors, Pakistan has begun a nascent tourism drive and this summer placed adverts across the sides of London’s iconic red buses. Road infrastructure has also been boosted across key holiday regions.
 Tourists are now returning to areas such as the Swat Valley, a northern region known as the Switzerland of Pakistan. As security improves, annual tourist arrivals to Pakistan have more than tripled since 2013 to 1.75 million last year, while domestic travelers rose 30 percent to 38.3 million, according to the state-owned Pakistan Tourism Development Corp. Over the same period, foreign tourist arrivals in the country’s larger neighbor, India, jumped from 6.97 million in 2013 to 8.8 million in 2016, government figures show.

The World Travel and Tourism Council puts the total contribution of tourism to Pakistan’s economy at $19.4 billion last year or 6.9 percent of gross domestic product. In a decade, the WTTC expects that to rise to $36.1 billion.

Jonny Bealby, the managing director of Wild Frontiers Adventure Travel Ltd., a London-based operator that has run trips to Pakistan for two decades, said his tours to the South Asian nation are up 60 percent from last year.

Along with security, Bealby said the main improvement in Pakistan has been infrastructure. “The roads have improved immeasurably reducing journey times.’’

Hotel bookings also increased 80 percent last year, according to Jovago, Pakistan’s biggest accommodation booking website. Many Pakistanis want to travel, but going abroad is difficult, said Nadine Malik, chief executive officer of Jovago Asia.

“It’s hard to get visas -- it’s not easy and it’s not cheap,’’ she said in an interview in Karachi.

Likewise, for many foreigners getting a Pakistan visa is expensive and bureaucratic, said Ayesha Siddiqa, a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and author of books on Pakistan’s military.

“A lot of people go to India because it publicizes itself as a tourist destination,’’ Siddiqa said. “It’s much more accessible.’’

The government is considering expanding the visa-on-arrival service beyond the current 16 countries, said Mukhatar Ali, a spokesman for the Pakistan tourism agency, without specifying which ones.

Meanwhile, resort spots like the northern town of Naran are buzzing with construction work, while hotels and restaurants enjoy a healthy trade from Pakistani holiday makers.

Even in Karachi, the turbulent port city known more for gang and political violence, tourism in and around the city has taken hold.

The Super Savari Express pioneered the colorful bus sightseeing tours in the Karachi in 2015 and wants to expend with regular trips around Lahore and Islamabad next year, according to Jehanzeb Salim, head of operations. “It’s about breaking mental barriers,’’ he said.

Let's take a look at some beautiful places one must visit in Pakistan.

Places To Visit:

Neelum Valley

Neelum Valley is situated at the North & North-East of Muzaffarabad Azad Kashmir, running parallel to Kaghan Valley. The two valleys are only separated by snow-covered peaks, some over 4000m above sea level. Excellent scenic beauty, panoramic views, towering hills on both sides of the noisy Neelum river, lush green forests, enchanting streams and attractive surroundings make the valley a dream come true.

Swat

 The lush green and historic Swat Valley. In the Malakand Division lies between 34’40’ to 35′ N latitude and 72′ to 740-3 E longitude and is part of the Provincially Administrated Tribal Area (PATA) of the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The valley is an integral part of the strategic and significant region where three parts of the Asian continent—South Asia. Central Asia and China meet.

Gilgit

Gilgit has an area of 38,000 square kilometers (14,672 sq mi). The region is significantly mountainous, lying on the foothills of the Karakoram mountains, and has an average altitude of 1,500 meters (4,900ft). It is drained by the Indus River, which rises in the neighboring regions of Ladakh and Baltistan.

The Gilgit-Baltistan borders the Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan to the northwest, China's Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang to the northeast, the Indian-controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir to the south and southeast, the Pakistani-controlled state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir to the south, and Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province to the west.The Karakoram and the Himalayas are important to Earth scientists for several reasons. They are one of the world's most geologically active areas, at the boundary between two colliding continents. Therefore, they are important in the study of plate tectonics.