Downturn in Tourism
Pakistan witnessed a tremendous decline (-97.5%) in foreign tourists between 2011 and 2020 (Pakistan Statistical Yearbook - PSY, 2022).
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Pakistan welcomed the least number of tourists between 2014 to 2020. According to PSY 2022, 93,902 American tourists visited Pakistan in 2011, which is the highest number among all other countries. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s highest foreign tourist inflow in 2020 was from Asia, at 2,858.
Pakistan has been facing problems in policy as well as implementation to exploit the inherent tourist potential of the country due to social and religious constraints, ineffective promotional policies, lack of infrastructure, and inadequate tourist services.
The pandemic had further worsened Pakistan's progress in the tourism sector. As per the World Travel and Tourist Council (WTTC, 2021), the Pakistani tourism industry was badly hit. The total contribution of Travel and Tourism to GDP in Pakistan dropped to 4.4% (PKR 1,874 billion) of the total GDP in 2020 as compared to 5.7% (PKR 2,438 billion) in 2019. The total contribution of Travel and Tourism to employment in Pakistan dropped to 4.8% (3,063 jobs) of the total employment in 2020 compared to 5.5% (3,446 jobs) in 2019. International visitors spent PKR 118 billion (2.9%) of the total export (USD 729 million) in 2020 as compared to PKR 153.8 billion (3.6%) of the total export (USD 950 million) in 2019.
The tourism potential of the country has not been realized and harnessed properly in the past because of a lack of initiatives on part of the concerned government departments, which also includes inadequate knowledge and training of relevant personnel in the tourism sector.
GRAPHICS OF THE DAY
The annual number of 'Tourist Arrival in Pakistan' has seen the worst dip during 2014 (even before the pandemic), while it started to improve in 2018, but couldn't sustain the upward momentum due to the pandemic. Over a period of 9 years (2011-2020), it has nose-dived by ~97%
INSTAGRAM POSTS
Weekly Data Watch (SPI) — www.instagram.com
• The Combined Index was recorded at 218.87 this week compared to 168.16 a year ago increasing by 30.16% on an annual basis
• Annual change in Sensitive Price Index increased to 30.16%
• Poorest of the country (Q1) experienced a change of 28.15%
• On a weekly basis, prices increased for all quintiles by 0.48%
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Weekly Data Watch (Commodities) — www.instagram.com
• Prices of Eggs (+8.45%), Chicken (+4.03%), and Onion (+2.35%) rose vs. last week
• Fall in prices of Daal Masoor (-1.07%) and Tomatoes (-1.08%) helped moderate inflation
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Weekly Data Watch (Stocks, Exchange Rate) — www.instagram.com
• KSE-100 rose slightly owing to the data on the current account deficit which narrowed by 47% (YoY) for Jul-Oct 22 and a decline in international commodity prices.
• PKR depreciated slightly this week due to bleak macros and rising dollar demand. Speculations on Pakistan-IMF talks over the release of the next tranche stating that it is subject to fresh conditions and the rising spread in the open market and interbank also led to the depreciation of PKR.
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