Tuesday 28 July 2020

COVID-19 (The journey of tourism industry from 9/11 to COVID-19 in Pakistan)


It is astonishing to this world the journey of tourism industry, why did I choose this topic to write on? You will be surprised to see this strange topic because some people are not related to this industry and even they don’t know tourism is an industry and its impact on the people and economy of a country. The ones who know about it and its impact during the years once the 9/11 happened the attacked on World Trade State in the United States of America on 11th of September 2001. The planes were hit in the world largest centre thousands of people died of it and billions cost of the materials destroyed because of the attack. It was one of the enormous lose for the United State of America. The news spread all over the world like fire in seconds many people in the world surprised on the strange event that was unbelievable and unexpected. Impact of the 9/11 on Tourism The terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States of America exposed the vulnerabilities of the tourism industry to changes in perception as to travel safety and security. Terrorism and threads to national security are documented to have impact on tourism demand. Tourism activities are multi pronged with mostly positive impact on any economy. The study attempts to investigate impacts of terrorists’ incidents in Pakistan. The proposed approach is stated OLS and Autoregressive distributed lag Modem Model from 1985 to 2008 taken at different points in time in relation to terrorists’ attacks. Result shows that the attacks caused a shock to tourists’ utility, and change the image profile of destinations. Moreover, it was found that destination experienced a strongly negative impact on their image and attractiveness. The impacts of terrorism on states on economy may enormous, leading to unemployment, homelessness, deflation, crime, and other economic social ills. According to Adam Blake and M. Thea Sinclair, two who have studied the impact of September 2001 Al-Qaeda strikes on the US tourism industry, ”The contribution of tourism and travel both industrialized in developing countries is now so great that any down turns in the level of activity in the industry cause of concern. The repercussions extend beyond activities directly associated with tourism notably airlines, hotels and catering, to sectors that supply intermediate or final goods that purchased by firms and employees in the industry, so that all sectors of the economy are affected to a greater or lesser extent,”. This comes to play an increasingly important role in many developing countries. In the late 1960s, and 1970s, tourism was often promoted as way to reduce persistent balance of payments deficit as a major source of foreign exchange. In the late 1980s, and throughout the 1990s, tourism was recognized for its direct and indirect impact on government revenue, national income and employment. In addition, tourism is recognized as means to diversify the economy and reduce reliance on traditional agriculture and industry. In a general tourism is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the developed world and can be characterized as having multinational effects. Tourism is an industry where both demand supply can be sensitive to economy of the country. TERRORISM AND TOURISM IN PAKISTAN Pakistan became in the top list of welcoming war against the terrorism after 9/11 terror incident in the United States of America. Terrorist employ the extra normal violence or its threatened use to gain the political objective through intimidation or fear. The political turmoil, judiciary problem, high inflation, food and energy crisis created the uncertainty situation in the country. On the other hand Pakistan faced the terror and militants problems from 2001 in the borders linked with tribal areas. The military presence was growing by day and acute thread to security and had already altered the very face of our country and society. Harvey fighting in the area has also created damages to agriculture, to homes and to the environment. Worse still, the loss of tourism means source of livelihood have been badly hit. Throughout in the tourist areas special in Swat region, people can be found who have lost their jobs, incomes, and who curse the militant armies that have cursed havoc across their once tranquil valley. According to an official estimate that it may be years before tourism in the Swat valley can be revived. Tourism has been completely destroyed by the terrorist attacks and military operation against the militants, because tourist is very sensitive to the law and order situation of the destination and cannot take any risk about security measures. Later on the assassination of Banazir Bhutto on 27th December 2007, which led to another negative impact not only on tourism while on the whole economy of the country. The escalation of terrorism over the last five years may have had a significant impact of terrorism on the tourism trade in the country plagued with the terrorist incidents. There is much speculation on the economic of terrorism on tourist trade and other tourism related industries in the country, thereby imposing cost and pressure on the government through loss of foreign exchange earnings, employment and reduction of activities in the tourist areas.

  TOUERISM ACTIVITIES FROM 2001-2020 

Soon after this happened the eyes of the United States got on the Muslim countries blaming this was done by any of the Muslim countries in the world Afghanistan was the top in the countries and United States sent his huge troops military and attacks on Afghanistan because of the Taliban Net work in the country which was a net work against the non-Muslims countries and their culture. Secondly, our country Pakistan was also in the list of those countries Talibanization is actively working against the non-Muslim country especially UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Pakistan came into the list as a close neighbor Muslim country to Afghanistan. United States of America and all the non-Muslim countries in the world became against Pakistan and closed and restricted their citizen to visit Pakistan and the neighboring countries that impacted the tourism in Pakistan for years and many people still afraid to visit Pakistan. The western media put misperceptions news against Pakistan and the presence of Taliban in different part of Pakistan who are active against the foreign visitors and people in the country. It did not only impact on Pakistan but also other large Muslim countries in the world. Pakistan was on the top list because being close through geographical bordering with Afghanistan. Osama Bin-e-Ladeen of Afghanistan vanished from Afghanistan and was suspected to be in Pakistan and the US searched for him for years. The tourism industry in Pakistan impacted very badly and many of the tourism related people skip the tourism industry and adopted other professions because of the restriction on tourism industry. After decade tourism started to be recovered and every the number of visitors to Pakistan increased yearly but everyone with fear. Once we received a group the first surprise for them was the answer to their question is it safe to go here? Yes no problem. By end of the trip they used to declare Pakistan one of the safest countries in the world and friendly people. All these positive comments of the visitors make tourism flow in Pakistan and the year 2020 was declared the top tourist destination for tourism in the world. Thousands of foreign tourists had booked their tour trips in Pakistan for this summer but unfortunately, the breaking out of the crazy pandemic of Corona Virus band on all to go out of their homes that led to cancel the trips all over the world. There is the worst impact on tourism industry all over the world. It was misfortunate for Pakistan because there is seasonal tourism unlike the other parts of the world. Right the beginning of tourist season the pandemic broke out in Pakistan and spread speedily in the country but not this single country in the whole world got into the same situation. Being part of tourism industry I have been through different experiences of life the first 10 years after 9/11 we passed through hard times of the life then tourism recovered after long time but suddenly an incident happened with climbers at Nanga Parbat base camp killing 11 people by attacking unknown attackers again tourism industry of Pakistan especially, Gilgit-Baltistan suffered of it for next 7-8 years. Many of the people connected to tourism skip tourism and joined other activities disappointing by the tourism in these years. With efforts of tour operators in Pakistan and concerned authorities and the special interest of the Prime Minister Imran Khan with some great policies highlighted the tourism sector of Pakistan in the world. The online visa systems, visa on arrival made it easier for people to visit Pakistan. For last two years the number of tourism was increasing gradually encouraging the tourism industry and tourism related businesses. The corona virus impact is unlike the other years led to collapse the world economy not only the tourism Pakistan but also the whole world.

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