Feature 
 

Spotlight

TREK Initiative Untaps
Pakistan’s Tourism Potential

KPK, World Bank and Nestlé Pakistan collaborate to promote eco-tourism.

By Syeda Areeba Rasheed | February 2021
Tourism-Potential
Prime Minister Imran Khan at the launching ceremony of TREK.

Pakistan has everything that a tourism-friendly country can offer – a rich and diverse culture, a wide variety of delicious foods and welcoming people in every corner of the land. The country is a panorama of majestic mountains, beautiful valleys, roaring rivers, expansive deserts and now a tourism infrastructure that is attracting people from all over the world.

With newly emerging opportunities, Prime Minister Imran Khan hopes Pakistan could become one of the top tourist destinations in the world very soon.

The tourism industry is one of the government’s top priorities. Apart from Pakistan’s many physical attractions, the industry has the potential to generate thousands of jobs since tourism is also a labour-intensive sector. There is a new enthusiasm all around and prospects for growth have been emphasized by all concerned. The Prime Minister has also said that the sustainability of the environment will be ensured at all times.

It was in this connection that the Prime Minister launched the project ‘Travel Responsibility for Experiencing Eco-Tourism (TREK)’, which is a joint venture of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, the World Bank and Nestlé Pakistan. The project will encourage responsible and eco-friendly tourism. It will start from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the picturesque Northern Areas of Pakistan. The initiative will combine the energies from a wide swath of areas; they will all come together to protect the ecosystem by managing solid waste and will recycle plastic at the most-frequented tourism sites.

To the Prime Minister, this is what Pakistan needs. He is of the view that eco-tourism goes hand in hand with preservation of nature. Since the Prime Minister firmly believes that climate change causes havoc and negatively affects initiatives for promotion of tourism, he has launched an ambitious program of planting 1 billion trees in KP and 10 billion trees all over Pakistan. He feels this would be the crux of his sustainable development-oriented policies.

The prime minister has also said that it was unplanned tourism and the growth of concrete structures that had destroyed the delightful landscapes of places like Murree and Nathia Gali. He also feels that without the local population reaping benefits, tourism would be unsustainable. He hopes that initiatives like TREK would encourage the local people and tourists to maintain cleanliness and pollution and that natural beauty can be preserved. For instance, spots like the beautiful Kumrat Valley would be protected instead of being destroyed by unplanned tourism.

The prime minister has commended the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for opening up new destinations for domestic and international tourists. Other stakeholders such as the World Bank Group, Nestlé, etc. are cooperating to fortify these efforts. The outcome is that issues usually faced by the tourism sector are now being addressed. The Chief Minister of KP, Mahmood Khan is happy that in addition to creation of new job opportunities, solid waste is now also being managed.

As a part of its global initiative, Nestlé has committed that it would make 100% of its packaging reusable and recyclable by 2025. This way the TREK project is helping to make Pakistan more eco-friendly. This is perfectly in line with several of Nestlé’s environmental interests.

Samer Chedid, CEO, Nestlé Pakistan, has said, “As part of our vision for a waste-free future, we are accelerating our actions to tackle plastic waste and our partnership with WBG and the KP government is a step in that direction. We will be driving new behaviour and understanding through community engagement, cleanup activities, training and connecting waste recycling companies with the local administration.”

For Pakistan, enhancing tourism could prove to be a big boon as new solutions will help solve the country’s many economic miseries. It is unfortunate that the tourism sector in Pakistan has been unplanned so far and this has negatively impacted the country’s natural beauty. Tourists are most welcome but wherever they go, they create heaps of garbage and litter. Murree is always swarming with tourists but the town’s streets seem to be filled with garbage while waste disposal is nowhere in sight.

Najy Benhassine, Pakistan Country Director of the World Bank Group (WBG) has underscored the growing involvement of companies as contributors to responsible tourism all over Pakistan. He supports the Prime Minister’s view that “the growth and job creation potential of this sector is massive.”

Tourism was re-born in Pakistan in 2019. In this year, Pakistan was named as the best tourism travel destination in the Condé Nast Travellers list. The country also hosted YouTubers and filmmakers from around the globe. Their coverage put Pakistan on the world tourism map. The visit of the British royal couple was immensely useful in this respect. While the tourism industry suffered with the rest of the world from the impact of the coronavirus in 2020, it is hoped that 2021 will be a better year. The world will have access to vaccines and Pakistan can again attract more tourists with eco-sustainable tourism initiatives like Trek.

Read More