The tourism industry has played an important role in the
development and economic stability of many countries of the world. Pakistan is
very fortunate in that we have high mountains and beautiful valleys as well as
vast opportunities to promote religious tourism. Five important places of the
Sikh community are located in Punjab. Among them, the birth place of Guru Nanak
Devji, the founder of Sikhism in Nankana Sahib, Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in
Narowal, Kartarpur, Panja Sahib Hasan Abdal and Dera Sahib in Lahore are
important. There are many historical buildings in different cities of Punjab.
Similarly, the traces of 8 magnificent monasteries, universities and stupas of
the Buddhist era are spread from Punjab province to different areas of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa. The province of Sindh is of great importance for Jainism, which
has been a stronghold of Jainism for centuries. Four historic temples of this
period still exist in Tharparkar, while the Hinglaj temple on the banks of the
Hingul river in Balochistan is the holiest place of Hindus, the pilgrimage to
which is of great importance among the followers of the Hindu religion.
It is worth mentioning here that before the construction of
Kartarpur Corridor, Sikh pilgrims used to start their worship by doing darshan
of the Gurdwara through binoculars in the early morning from the 'Darshan
Sathal' built in alignment with the Gurdwara on the other side of the border.
With the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor, they can now walk to this holy
place for darshan, which not only promotes religious tourism in Pakistan, but
also promotes a positive perception of Pakistan in both countries, especially
the Sikh community. Keeping this successful experience in front, the government
should restore the important religious places of other religions in Pakistan
and make them easy to access. Similarly, Taxila, Haripur, Mardan and Swat and
other northern regions are very attractive for Buddhists and other foreign
tourists due to the ancient Gandhara civilization.
Apart from Sikhism and Buddhism, there are dozens of important
and holy places of Hinduism and Jainism in Pakistan. If the government creates
a systematic strategy in this regard, earning billions of rupees in foreign
exchange is not a big deal for Pakistan. However, for this we need to educate
our citizens so that they understand the importance of religious tourism in
highlighting the positive image of Pakistan and economic stability. In this
regard, with regard to religious tourism, the local population of important
places and areas should be included in the tourism policies to provide
awareness and awareness so that they do not damage these abundant resources
through their ignorance. Apart from this, there is a need to improve the law
and order situation and tourism facilities in the country because tourists from
all over the world, especially those who come for religious tourism, spend
thousands of dollars in dirty bathrooms, dirty and sealed hotels. Will not like
to stay in rooms.
Apart from this, we need to improve the attitudes of local people related to this sector by making tourism a regular industry, because whoever lands at an airport in Pakistan, most of our compatriots are the hen that lays the golden egg. Understand. In order to control these negative factors and attitudes, the government needs to make effective legislations and regulations regarding tourism. With this initiative, while we will get valuable foreign exchange, the message of peace and religious tolerance will go to the world from our side and a positive impression about Pakistan will be highlighted around the world.
In order to develop this sector and provide maximum facilities to those who
come to Pakistan for religious tourism from abroad, the government urgently
needs to invest in the development and maintenance of infrastructure as per the
international standards set by UNESCO. is In this regard, the model of public
private partnership or direct foreign investment can be adopted. Because in the
meetings held at various forums abroad, the majority of the followers of Sikhs
and other religions say that they want to come to Pakistan to visit their
religious places, but they are facing many challenges. These challenges include
lack of proper training of facilities, accommodation, security and hotel
management staff, as well as low quality services. If attention is paid to the
hotel industry in the country and manpower is developed according to global
standards, lakhs of people can be attracted to travel to Pakistan every year.
In this regard, if we focus on the Sikh community in India and outside India
and the tourism industry of China, then millions of tourists can come to
Pakistan from there every year. More than 2.5 million tourists travel abroad
from China every year. Similarly, there are wide opportunities for the citizens
of neighboring India including Europe and America to visit religious and
historical places in Pakistan. The need for Pakistan to pay full attention to
this sector is even greater because our neighboring countries India, Iran and
Sri Lanka are already far ahead of us in this sector and tourism to religious
and cultural places there has become a multi-billion dollar industry. .
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