Sikh pilgrims ask government to tap into billion-dollar religious tourism industry

Over 80 percent of Sikhs around globe wish to visit Pakistan, but lack of facilities a major issue

Picture source - Wikipedia

Leaders of the Sikh community from the United States believe that Pakistan can earn billions of dollars by promoting religious tourism.

In a meeting with UK Pakistan Business Council Chairman Mian Kashif Ashfaq in Lahore on Thursday, American Sikh Caucus Committee Executive Director Harpreet Singh Sandhu said, “Several important avenues of Sikh and Buddhist religious sites are yet to be explored here.”

He stated that to accrue maximum benefits, the government needed to immediately invest in developing and maintaining vital supporting infrastructure strictly in line with international standards set by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Sandhu was leading a group of Sikhs from different states of US and Pakistan on a religious tour.

Sandhu sees special potential in Punjab – home to five of the most important pilgrimage sites for the Sikh community – and said that 79 percent of 20 million Indian Sikhs wished to visit Pakistan, but they faced a number of challenges to fulfill their desire.

On top of that, he said, 83 percent of the eight million Sikhs living abroad had the same desire.

But, according to him, problems included lack of facilities, lodging and security issues and absence of proper training of hotel management staff in addition to low-standard services, which needed to be addressed.

It was unfortunate that hardly 10 percent of the Sikhs across the globe visited Pakistan so far, which needed to swell to millions annually.

Deputy leader of the delegation Charanjit Singh Batth said that in most of the countries, tourism was the second-highest source of foreign exchange. He said that religious tourism was a thriving yet mostly-neglected industry in Pakistan, a country packed with landmarks of various religious ethnicities.

He said areas like Taxila, Haripur, Mardan and Swat, which make up the ancient Gandhara region, could be more attractive for foreign tourists.

Goja Singh, another member of the Sikh delegation, also raised the same issues. The Sikh delegation is visiting Pakistan at the invitation of Mian Kashif.

Mian Kashif told the guests that the world’s oldest 50-feet-long sleeping Buddha statue was unearthed in Haripur recently.

He said that one of the surveys revealed that 58 million followers of Buddha wanted to come to Pakistan, adding that Pakistan could not capitalise on these lucrative opportunities due to the government’s perpetual lack of interest.

Moreover, he thanked the delegation for visiting Pakistan and giving their valuable suggestions for boosting religious tourism, which, he added, would be placed before Prime Minister Imran Khan.