Tourism in Pakistan: Challenges, Prospects and Potential of Gilgit-Baltistan

Abstract

This study presents the statistics of foreign tourists travelling to Pakistan and their subsequent contribution to national wealth from the year 1999 to 2012. The main objective of this study is to identify the factors that are affecting tourism in Pakistan and provide recommendations which can contribute to overcome the impediments. The potential of tourism in Gilgit-Baltistan, a northern mountainous region of Pakistan, is examined as a case study. It is that the region has always been a key destination of foreign tourists and climbers who come for trekking and climbing expeditions to scale various high summits. Furthermore, the article also attempts to examine the role which this region can play to boost tourism in Pakistan and generate income in general. The methodology applied to carry out this study has been an extensive one year field work in Gilgit-Baltistan during which semi-structured, structured and informal interviews of people engaged in tourism industry of G-B, political analysts, civil society representatives and NGOs’ officials were conducted. Primary data generated and analyzed during this field work was been reviewed with the help of some secondary resources