“All my three sons used to work as porters and guides for tourists coming to the area around 10 years ago but now, they go to down country in the winter season to earn livelihood for the 21-member joint family,” says Sher Baig of Terich valley, which flanks Terich Mir peak of Hindu Kush range of mountains.

The tourism industry has been adversely affected in Chitral after the 9/11 terrorist attacks with tourists turning away from the area. Earlier, scores of foreigners, including eco-tourists, trekkers and mountaineers, visited the area.

Baig recalls that local people derived a large part of their income from tourists coming in during the summer season and for many, tourism-related activities were like a profession.

Such views were expressed by hotel owners in Kalash valley’s Bumburate area, which once teemed with foreigners in the season.

Rahim Khan, a hotel owner in Brun village of the valley, recalls the day with great sorrow when foreign tourists were packed into vehicles and sent across the Lowari Pass for their ‘security’.

He says he had to fire his all four waiters and two cooks when the number of tourists dropped significantly after the incident. He termed Kalash as the worst affected people of the fall of local tourism industry as their culture is said to be unique in nature attracting tourists to the valley in large numbers.

There is a need for highlighting Chitral in national and international media as the place absolutely free from terrorism and other threats to the life and property of tourists, especially foreigners, says Abdur Razaq, a local tour operator

Afzal Ali Shah, who works on a livelihood programme with an NGO, has figures based on household survey to show that the decaying industry of tourism has caused poverty in the area. He said the influx of tourists to the area engaged the local jobless people with employment ranging from porter to tourist guide.

Shah said apart from Kalash valleys of Bumburate, Birir and Rumbur, the valleys of Terich, Arkari, Oveer and Garam Chashma were also centres of tourism and that unemployment rate was very high there.

He was of the view that revival of tourism in Chitral must be taken as a special initiative to reduce poverty. It was due to the fabulous potential of tourism that five numbers of hotels were opened by Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) in different locations of Chitral in 1970s and 80s to cope with the growing number of tourists.

Abdur Razaq, a Chitral-based tour operator, termed Chitral the paradise of tourists for having diverse cultures, numerous trekking routes on the foothold of Hindu Kush, more than one hundred peaks of altitudes more than 5000 meters coupled with rich bio-diversity.

According to him, it is in Chitral that a tourist could easily view a markhor and snow leopard in their natural habitats from a close range. Above all, the lengths and breadths of the area offer peaceful ambiance, which is the most wanted for a tourist.

Razaq said there was a need for portraying Chitral in the national and international media as the place absolutely free from terrorism and other threats to the life and property of tourists, especially foreigners.

Professor Rahmat Karim Baig, author of a number of books on local culture, said it would take more than a month for an eco-tourist to tour the district, which was divided into 36 segregated valleys.

He was optimistic about the revival of the industry in Chitral saying serious efforts were underway both in public and private sectors for the purpose.

Dr Inayatullah Faizi, team leader of a USAID-funded project executed by a local organisation on promotion of tourism in Chitral, said it has made a number of efforts to create an ideal environment, which lured tourists to throng Chitral.

He said a linkage was being developed with worldwide tourism networks with an aim to showcase the ideally peaceful atmosphere of Chitral best suited for tourism.

He said in Chitral, the situation for tourists had not been so insecure for tourists but it was bracketed with other terror-hit districts of the region and the tourists were denied entrance to it.

“Under the project, a mountaineering school is being established, which will prove a big step in attracting mountaineers to the peaks of Hindu Kush mountains,” he said.

The freestyle polo is also a source of attraction for the tourists, he said, and for its promotion, the game is being promoted for which polo clubs are being established under the project in seven major towns of the district.

Dr Faizi was of the view that tourism industry in Chitral is treading on its way to regain its earlier position of a decade ago.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2015

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