Pakistani cultural sites and museums have seen a big boost in tourism over the last five years. According to Gallup Pakistan, up to 317 per cent increase has been seen in tourists turnout – from 1.6 million visits in 2014 to 6.6 million in 2018. Province wise, Punjab attracted most of the tourists, nearly 95 per cent of them, followed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The most visited places were museums where visitor numbers increased from 1.7 million in 2014 to around 2.7 million in 2018. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan also hosted such a large number of tourists at their museums. In the last five years, the recorded maximum number of visits was seen in 2018. The data on visitors include both domestic and foreign tourists and the number of foreign visitors to museums went up by approximately 130 per cent and cultural sites by 100 per cent. The museums of Khyber Pakhtunkhaw received 250 per cent more visitors in 2018 than 2014. The data does not tell about the nationality of tourists.
Pakistan is a cultural- and historical- site rich country. The sites most attracting the tourists from 2016-2018 are Pakistan Monument Museum (Islamabad), Khewra Mines Museum (Chakwal), Lok Virsa Heritage Museum (Islamabad), Taxila sites and Lahore museum. Simlialry, the most visited cultural sites include Shahi Qila and Shalimar Gardens (Lahore), the Hiran Minar (Sheikhupura), Jehangir’s tomb (Lahore) and ancient Buddhist monastic complex Takht-i-Bahi (Mardan) in different years from 2016 to 2018. The places such as Moenjodaro and Larkana remained on tourists’ lists.
The progress is promising but more tourists can be attracted by developing more facilities at the sites mentioned above and by discovering more sites across Pakistan. The full potential of the tourism sector has yet to be tapped and the returns on tourism sector are enormous and rapid. A tourist is attracted to a well-advertised and well-reviewed place. While reviewing a site, they examine features like accessibility, availability of facilities falling in high, medium and low budgets, tourist turnout and so on. Once they have been to the place, they will review it on the basis of its grandeur, ambience, conduct of other tourists and vendors and help extended by officials. It is time the authorities revisit their plans regarding revamping the tourism sector and make the country a heaven for sightseers. *