According to the World Economic Forum, coastal and marine tourism is anticipated to be the largest value-adding segment of the ocean economy by year 2030, with expected global growth rate of more than 3.5% per annum. Travel and tourism is globally a well recognised industry. The growth in travel & tourism sector remained high in year 2018 that is @ 3.9%, outpacing the growth rate of global economy as a whole. The sector accounted for 10.4% of global GDP in year 2018, which makes about $8.8 trillion in terms of money. It’s not just about getting profit, the contribution of the sector in reducing unemployment and maintaining socio-economic development of coastal communities is also very significant. The tourism and travel sector provided 319 million jobs in year 2018, which makes up 10% of total employment. This means 1 out of every 10 job created was related to this industry. For the eighth consecutive year, the economic figures in travel and tourism sector have shown constant increase when compared with number of other major sectors of the world such as construction and agriculture.
South Asia, as a significant contributor in the global travel and tourism sector has gained $296 billion in 2018, which makes a share of 8.8% in global industry. The region is expected to be the fastest growing region over the next 10 years, with average growth of 7.2% per year till 2028. Some Asian countries have the successfully turned tourism into a significant contributor in the national economy and have also secure position in top 15 global states with fastest growing maritime tourism sector. China, India, Turkey, Thailand and Maldives are some significant examples. According to the sources of World Bank, the contribution of travel and tourism sector to Pakistan’s gross domestic product remained just 2.93 per cent in year 2018. While other regional states with almost similar social and economic dynamics are performing much better in the sector.
These trends indicate potential of tourism sector as driver of blue growth. However, it seems that Pakistan’s policy makers and concern authorities in maritime domain are ignorant towards the potential of coastal and maritime tourism. Government endeavour to promote scenic beauty in southern part of the county; seas and coastal areas are not being recognised as potential sources of rise in national economy. Opening of
Kartarpur Border and unique religious tourism potential has been in limelight in 2019 along with growing local tourism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Punjab. But scope of coastal and marine tourism is not yet considered as serious business.
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Pakistan has all the key ingredients essential to build a thriving maritime tourism sector. Beautiful active, alive coast with vigorous cultural community can be turned into a modern maritime tourism belt provided Government facilitates for safety, security and accessibility through developing basic social infrastructure. From Sir Creek to Gawater Bay, exciting options like Marine recreational zones, Maritime theme Parks, Sites for Eco/ marine tourism, Costal Folk experience spots, Yachting and sailing areas etc can be explored for building maritime tourism belt. Marine protected Areas; Astola Island and Indus River Canyon can be designated/developed as National Coastal Parks. Tourism is a market driven sector and private investors will set a competitive environment for future growth if provided with basic support. This is the key to turn blue into the gold.
The international trends highlight that domestic or native tourists grab about 72 percent share in terms of financial value while remaining 28 percent is attributed to foreigners, keeping in view the first resource we need to tap as primary tourist source is the local populace. Our focus should be on developing tourism based costal economy through blue growth strategy. With the paradigm of blue growth, we can create sustainable conditions for competitive growth, all we need is to ensure safe and secure recreational environment, strict implementation of biodiversity and environmental policies and beach restoration efforts that will reinstate and maintain the recreational and attractive value of our beaches. But existing challenges in expansion of maritime tourism demand more than this. Human security issues, environmental threats and non-availability of communication infrastructure are not the only impediments. Without tourist friendly travelling procedures, particularly with regards to inter province travel of foreigners, and investor friendly financial policies this sector cannot perform upto its optimum potential.
Recently a ray of hope have been emerged as in pursuance of SH judgement, Government of Sindh has formed a high level committee to draft ordinance of “Coastal Leisure Tourism & Water Sports Authority”. The first meeting of the committee has been held on 21 November under the chairmanship of Imtiaz Shah, Secretary Tourism & Youth Affairs, Sindh. Hopefully Balochistan government would also take some significant steps for viable way forward in the area.
Last but not the least, we all knew that coastal areas are some of the most productive and biologically diverse areas on the planet. They’re also the most densely populated: according to the UN, 60% of the world’s population live within 60 km of the coast. This is more than entire population of plant earth 60 years ago (in 1960). On top of this, 80% of all tourism takes place in coastal areas; beaches with coral reefs and archipelagic with delicate marine ecosystems are amongst the most popular destinations. Therefore the maritime tourism is also considered as one of the main sector that causes environmental depletion, due to building constructions and recreational activities. Tourism generates lots of pressures on quality and quantity of natural resource and ultimately may cause sedimentation and erosion of the coast. Therefore the policy makers are to be vigilant towards environmental protection and these challenges and be addressed by making maritime tourism SUSTAINABLE.!
[box type=”note” align=”” class=”” width=””]The author is Researcher at National Centre for Maritime Policy Research (NCMPR) Karachi.[/box]