Protecting Culture, Promoting Tourism

By Measum Abbas

Gilgit Baltistan has the potential to attract millions of tourists because of its unique natural landscape and beauty. Gilgit Baltistan is home to world’s largest mountain ranges like Himalayan, Karakorum and Hindu Kush. It is also an important region because of its geostrategic location with China to the north, India to the east. It’s also the gateway to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), where Karakorum Highway connects China with Pakistan. Over the last many years, thousands of foreign and local tourists have visited Gilgit Baltistan and immersed themselves in the beauty of Gilgit Baltistan. The north of Pakistan has rich culture, heritage, archaeological sites and multiple ethnicities. The local people are very welcoming, honest, and courteous. It’s also home to many unexplored languages like Shina, Balti,Khowar,Burushiski,Wakhi. The local population is increasingly witnessing the arrival of thousands of tourists every year. Tourism is one of the main sectors of earning income by the local population. Thousands of local tour companies, hotels, labours are associated with the tourism sector of Gilgit Baltistan. Whenever the summer season comes, the arrival of thousands of tourists brings a lot of happiness, prosperity, blessing to many indigenous communities.

When we observe the positive side of tourism, it brings livelihood opportunities, creates jobs, and drives development. However, it also creates a lot of cultural threats, may lead to criminal activities, establishes new criminal networks and nurtures cultural challenges, which can lead to the destruction of local cultures, local values and religious harmony. In cities like Skardu and Hunza, thousands of brands and companies visit famous tourist spots and make commercial advertisements for the promotion of their products. The content they shoot doesn’t fit according to the local cultures and values. The inappropriate nature of these promotional videos and ads only anger local population and violate the norms and standards of indigenous population.  These corporations and brands do not know how much the local population gets negatively impacted by their so-called ads. When such activities persist and don’t get addressed, it will only create divisions between the local people and the tourists, which is indirectly a threat to the tourism sector of Pakistan. The people of Gilgit Baltistan are highly connected and attached to their local values and religious beliefs. They always demand a kind of tourism, which protects and show respect to their cultural sensitivity and indigenous reality. If such activities are not addressed and regulated by local authorities, then it will risk the influx of tourists at large scale and the probability of confrontation between local population and the authorities will rise. Unregulated tourism and inappropriate commercial practices are the greatest threat to the tourism sector of Pakistan. The government must adopt people-centred approach to regulate the tourism sector and must ban all those activities, which are threatening to both the local population and to the tourism sector. There is a urgent need of creation of a tourist guidance framework by the Government of Pakistan, which must highlight what are the local values, norms and culture of the indigenous population, what kind of religious sentiments people have, and what kind of actions, activities are associated with the local values and beliefs and are required to do?

The Framework must also highlight what are the expectations of the local people with the tourists, whenever they visit their villages and neighborhoods?  The framework must guide the tourists to respect local cultures, values and religious beliefs and prevent the tourists from doing any activity, which disturbs the peace and comfort of local people. Local authorities must create a mechanism of creating awareness about local cultures, values, and religious beliefs. The main highways like Karakorum Highway, and Juglot-Skardu Road must be installed by billboards, depicting the importance of local cultures, values through art. Tour companies, hotel owners must be encouraged to aware tourists about the cultural sensitivity and indigenous beliefs and to prevent tourists from doing any activity, which badly affect local values. Gilgit Baltistan never says “No to outsiders” but demands a people-centred approach to adopt policies, which protect their culture, values and benefit the local job market as well. Switzerland earns approximately 22-25 billion USD per year from tourism sector. Pakistan has also the potential to ramp up its GDP through tourism. However, it must focus on people-centred approach to adopt policies which are beneficial for the local population and revives the trust of people in the tourism sector, through which their cultural identity and values are preserved.