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Ecotourism Between India and Pakistan
India and Pakistan are following Confidence
Building Measure
(CBMs) nowadays to satisfy international powers and there is a ray
of hope that they may go to a position where they can activate
regional cooperation despite of their on-going conflict of
Kashmir. Taking this background as a great expectation, Ecotourism
Society Pakistan (ESP) has done this research to inform people
that share of communities in tourism in India and Pakistan is
practically zero and geopolitical positioning of Himalaya has
effected poor communities of this area that could have been the
best available and best possible tourism destination for entire
world. This study done by Ecotourism Society Pakistan (ESP) and
Report is prepared by:
Agha Iqrar Haroon, President ESP
Haris Khan, Student, Business Management, University of Punjab
(Pakistan)
Special gratitude and tribute to late Farooq Atta, Financial Analyst
Ministry of Tourism Government of Pakistan whose
papers have been a great help for this study
Abstract
India and Pakistan are following Confidence Building Measure
(CBMs) nowadays to satisfy international powers and there is a ray
of hope that they may go to a position where they can activate
regional cooperation despite of their on-going conflict of
Kashmir. Taking this background as a great expectation, Ecotourism
Society Pakistan (ESP) has done this research to inform people
that share of communities in tourism in India and Pakistan is
practically zero and geopolitical positioning of Himalaya has
effected poor communities of this area that could have been the
best available and best possible tourism destination for entire
world.
Background of Study
Travel has long been an important part of the life in the mountain
villages of the Himalayas. Political and economic developments
disrupted the traditional trading actives across the Himalayas and
the movements of shepherds from the middle of the century,
resulting in a significant negative impact on the economy of the
region.
Modern tourism, which began to pick up in the region in the
sixties, has helped to fill the gap in some parts of the region.
This paper is based on the experience of the authors of working in
the Pakistani Himalayan region and on a large number of existing
studies on tourism for Nepal, Indian states and Pakistan.
It examines the various forms of tourism that have emerged in the
region with the advent of modern tourism and the initiatives that
have helped in maximising gains for the local host communities and
minimising the potential of negative impact. It emphasises that
these initiatives have succeeded in linking conservation issues
and tourism in and around protected areas and that there are
important lessons to be learnt from their experience.
Situation
Modern tourism has come into vogue in the Himalayan region at an
appropriate juncture in its history. It started just when the
consequences of the political and economic developments in mid
twentieth centuries were beginning to be felt. Independence of
Pakistan in 1947 and Indo-Pak war on Kashmir in 1948 and its
consequent tension mingled with Indo-Sino tension had a negative
impact on the seasonal migration patterns of nomads and shepherds,
especially near the border regions and destroyed the entire
potential of this one of the most beautiful region of the world as
the most successful tourism destination. These changes also
disrupted traditional trading activities across the Himalayas.
Trading and nomadic herding have historically been important
livelihood resources for the mountain villages in the region. Over
the centuries, the villagers have developed sustainable systems of
livelihood that encompassed farming, animal husbandry, trading and
providing hospitality to tourists. Historic trails of traveling
are occupied by border forces which are even trying to shot down
birds crossing man-made borders.
Therefore, tourism trend changed in this region and cross border
tourism was denied due to fear of cross border terrorism. Co-
branding of destinations and regioanal package tourism never
adopted here.
With the development of a road infrastructure and motorised road
transport, the tourists started coming in larger numbers, but they
were no longer trekking through the area, spending their nights in
the traditional community run and built Sairay (Inns) by the
villagers and accepting their hospitality. They now travel in
buses, taxis and cars and spend the nights and have their meals in
small towns where the government and the private sector have built
accommodation and catering facilities. The local communities have
gained as the number of tourists has increased many folds and
tourism continues to constitute about half the GNP of the region
but the major share of revenue goes to public enterprises like
National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) in Pakistan and India. The
gains would have been spread out over a much greater population if
the local villages had been able to retain the initiative that
they earlier had.
Tourist activities in the region can be classified into three
broad categories: recreational, mountain tourism and pilgrimages
(in Indian states). There are the inevitable overlaps but by and
large you find that each area tends to have a distinct focus. A
fourth, which could also be classified as a sub-category of
recreational tourism is just beginning to emerge and may represent
a new growth area with a high potential; enjoying the mountains
with a prolonged stay in a mountain village without the strain of
treks or rushed tours. This is also an area where innovative
inputs would probably be most relevant and an area from which
local communities stand to gain the most if the developments are
properly guided. In all the three categories, the gains for the
local community have come from the informal sector and from
linkages rather than from direct advantage from the formal sector.
The direct gains have come from lodges, guesthouses and teashops
ran by self-employed villagers and from providing transport and
carrying luggage and goods needed for tourists. The indirect gains
have come from an increased demand for food products and from the
crafting and sell of handicrafts.
The agencies located mostly in the major cities of Pakistan and
India control a major segment of the market for the domestic and
regional tourists and for handling most of the tours of the
international tour and travel agencies. The later includes
metropolitan cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Delhi and
Mumbai and smaller regional cities such as Chandigarh and Shimla.
They compete fiercely with each other, to the advantage of the
international agencies. They are experts at driving down the
prices of their suppliers, especially the middle range of hotels
and the lodge owners, both of whom are often competing with each
other to get an adequate share of the market. This is especially
the case during the lean season. The tour and travel agencies form
a strong alliance when it comes to defending or promoting common
interests. The ultimate result is the less money for porters,
drivers and other local stakeholders as operators can not buy
cheaper fuel for transportation but they can buy cheaper labour
and this is what they do.
A number of studies done in India have indicated that leading
national associations of tour agencies played a key role in
formulating rules for tourism to Upper Mustang, an old kingdom
within Nepal that was opened up to tourism in 1992. Only organised
tours are allowed. The rules allow little room for local
communities to make direct economic gains from tourism, all in the
name of protecting the cultural heritage and the unique
environment of this region. Studies show that there has been a
greater negative impact due to the inability of the local
entrepreneurs to be able to participate actively and independently
in the commerce of tourism than because of tourism itself. The
owners of traditional inns that formerly catered to traders
passing through the area formed a co-operative. As a group they
made a proposal that would have enabled the tour operators and the
inn owners to work in a mutually co-operative way and to the
advantage of both and the tourists (Shakely, M. 1994).
However, Tour Operator Associations play no role in formulating
rules or having control on intervention in operation and all is
done by Ministry of Tourism Government of Pakistan. There is no
cooperative of stakeholders exist in Pakistan and NGO sector has
totally failed to do community development in the field of tourism
as their only interest if following the project instruction of
donor agencies and donor are interested only in report
development, research studies and environmental issues. People who
are the greatest component of environment are ignored by donors
and NGO sector in Pakistan. People need basic training and skill
for developing their small business in the field of tourism and
NGO sector provides them "capacity building" of "how to promote
human rights, women rights, child labour etc".
In a sense it was inevitable as in all the three regions studied
the main hotels, the travel agencies, the luxury coaches and
sometimes even the taxis are owned by the power elite of the
states and the countries. Lodge and guesthouse owners represent
another set of stakeholders from within the private sector. A
unique trademark of mountain tourism in the region, these lodges
and guesthouses are sometimes classified as being part of either
the formal sector or the informal sector. In the present analysis
they have been assumed to be a part of the informal sector. Most
lodges are family establishments, the role of employees in
managing these establishments being marginal. In Pakistan valley
are practically owned by certain families and they are the only
one who are ruling the tourism industry with the underhand support
of Ministry of Tourism. These families are so strong that they are
the one who rule the office of the Minister of Tourism in
Pakistan.
It is interesting to note that the local communities tend to gain
more from these activities from independent travelers than from
group travelers. In the case of group travelers, the teams to
accompany the groups are organised in big cities from where the
trekking or mountaineering begins. The people who are hired are
often not from the communities through which the tourists will
trek.
The porters and other staff accompanying these tours and
expeditions have also caused significant environmental damage,
through the use of firewood for cooking and keeping warm. Porters
accompanying independent travelers tend to be from the local area
and do not make an additional demand on the natural resources of
the area. They are also fewer in numbers and are generally well
cared for by the travelers who employ them. Collection and sale of
firewood from forest areas is another major occupation through
which local communities have made economic gains from mountain
tourism.
Lets hope for a prosper future
Recreation tourism tends to be concentrated in pockets and
controlled by external investments. Economic gains for the local
populations tend to be limited. The potential for economic gains
can be fully realised by dispersing tourism destinations. The
places where the tourist stay and have their meals are now
concentrated in small towns, instead of being in villages at
walking distance from each other. It will be important to evolve
strategies for dispersing tourist destinations if gains for local
communities are to be maximised. The experience in Nepal has shown
that tourism and conservation can reinforce each other especially
if strategies and processes to ensure gains to local communities
are put in place. Starting with a concern for conservation, the
process in Nepal moved on to assist local communities to maximise
gains from tourism, realising that this could be a major incentive
for involving these communities in conservation activities.
Developing and strengthening local institutions such as lodge
owners associations, women's groups, forest protection and
management committees and village councils have played an
important role in making conservation and tourism programmes
effective. This should be cornerstone for all future strategies,
planning and intervention. There are three areas where women can
play a significant role, providing hospitality, providing indirect
inputs through horticultural, animal husbandry and handicrafts and
minimising the impact of tourism on natural resources.
Participation for providing hospitality and for improving the
natural resource base has either happened spontaneously or has
been easy to promote. Promotion of activities that are indirectly
linked to tourism has not been that easy. It would be important to
understand the causes. It may be that in popular destinations
activities directly linked with tourism bring the best returns for
capital and enterprise, and people turn to other activities only
when entry into the tourist industry is restricted or when the
potential from tourism is fully exhausted. It might help to take a
broader perspective and look beyond the immediate periphery of
popular tourist destination while planning to promote economic
activities as backward and forward linkages to tourism.
Handicrafts have been neglected as a part of tourism development
programmes. Owners of luxury hotels, tour organisers and travel
agents and tourist departments can play an important role in
ensuring that local communities gain more for tourism than they do
at present. With an overriding concern for conservation pushing
the process, these stakeholders have remained in the periphery of
the process. This can be overcome if a sector approach to tourism,
putting tourism rather than conservation at the centre of the
process is pursued. Training and formulating strategies for easier
access to credit and markets should be an important part of the
sector approach. Apart from training the potential managers of
lodges in rural areas it should also include training for women
and men from villages and the poorer section of urban centres for
serving in the formal sector. It should also provide training and
other support for those engaged in the lowest rung of the informal
sector, such as porters, dishwashers and itinerant vendors. |
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