Business | Opinion
Event cancellation a blow to Pakistan's economy
This week's cancellation of an ambitious international cricket tour of Pakistan in about two years from now has been roundly condemned by fans across the cricketing nation.
- By Farhan Bokhari, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 23:01 April 21, 2009
This week's cancellation of an ambitious international cricket tour of Pakistan in about two years from now has been roundly condemned by fans across the cricketing nation.
But few have immediately appreciated either the economic implications of the cancellation of this major sporting event mainly due to security related fears tied to Pakistan, or indeed the fallout from yet another entertainment related event getting packed up.
However, there is an obvious link between sport, entertainment and economic activity which is essential to appreciate as Pakistan faces major challenges.
The most obvious example of such a link is indeed none other than the scramble often seen by investors from many other countries vying to support the hosting of Olympic games held in a different location every four years.
Often, there are multi billion dollars associated with the holding of such as event.
The scale of benefit for Pakistan financially may be far below the returns from an Olympic event. And yet, it is difficult from an economic perspective to disregard the expected gains.
Hosting the planned international cricket event for Pakistan would have been synonymous with the recognition that the country's internal conditions were safe enough for foreign sporting teams and travellers.
In many countries, visits by foreign sporting teams and ordinary spectators, often work as a seal of approval by members of the business community.
But for years, Pakistan's security conditions have only worsened. This has forced the successive regimes to take steps for revamping Pakistan tourism and entertainment industry. Ultimately, the challenge is not just that of foreign travellers avoiding visits to a country faced with mounting insecurity.
Additionally, there is a class of domestic Pakistani tourists too who could have been easily lured to spend more money within their own country rather than in foreign destinations.
If anecdotal evidence provides any guidance, flights leaving Pakistan for foreign destinations are usually packed through most of the year, giving an indication of the continuing demand from passengers.
This situation often means that getting a ticket at short notice for travel to a foreign destination is almost next to impossible.
Such anecdotal evidence only suggests that there is a community of Pakistanis who are regularly travelling outwards and may well be armed with enough resources to spend within their country if there were opportunities.
Based on such evidence, a pre-requisite to developing Pakistan's tourism and entertainment industry must first be a near accurate assessment over the scale of spending that takes place annually in tourism across the country.
This would be essential to developing a new business model both for present and prospective investors.
On the one hand, the most vital ingredient for improving the investment climate in all areas including tourism is essentially to revamp Pakistan's security.
Without a significant improvement in security conditions, it is impossible to see Pakistan make progress in turning around its investment climate.
So far however, there is little evidence of the government or even private stake holders coming together to clamour for tackling Pakistan's insecurity as a key issue for the economy and not just an ideological one.
On the other hand, Pakistan needs to put itself effectively through a major facelift where it sheds its reputation as a state increasingly exposed to Islamist militancy. There are several ways to make this transition.
One of the best ways for doing so is indeed reviewing policies that are directly relevant to improving tourism as well as the variety and quality of entertainment.
For government policy makers, a look around at other tourist destinations around the world, easily reveals a well established point; marketable and popular destinations also become sought-after destinations for investors.
- The writer is a journalist based in Pakistan.
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