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By Rania Imran
ISLAMABAD, Jun 29 (APP):The recent heart-wrenching loss of a family from Sialkot, swept away by the roaring waters of the Swat River during what should have been a leisurely summer outing, has once again cast a harsh spotlight on tourist safety in northern Pakistan.
Just weeks earlier, four young friends from Gujrat, Wasif Shahzad, Umar Ehsan, Salman Nasrullah Sandhu, and Usman, vanished when their white Honda Civic plunged into a ravine near Astak Nallah on May 16. Their social media posts from Hunza brimmed with excitement, but the wreckage was only discovered on May 24, ending eight agonizing days of desperate hope for their families.
These heartbreaking incidents reflect a growing and deeply alarming pattern on northern Pakistan’s mountain highways. In Gilgit-Baltistan alone, Rescue 1122 and local police report nearly 1,500 road accidents annually on high-risk routes such as Gilgit–Skardu, Jaglot–Skardu, and the Karakoram Highway. These roads, unfortunately, claim dozens of precious lives each summer.
Northern tourism, once hailed as a lifeline with a projected value of $16 billion in 2022 and the potential to double by 2033, is now colliding with a deadly infrastructure deficit. The Swat and Gilgit tragedies underscore how breathtaking landscapes can hide life-threatening gaps: narrow, eroding roads with no guardrails, long stretches of mobile network dead zones, and under-resourced rescue services often unable to reach victims in time.
If Pakistan is serious about its tourism ambitions, particularly in the northern regions, immediate steps are essential. These include upgrading road safety infrastructure with proper signage, seasonal controls, guardrails, and pre-season audits. Telecom providers must be encouraged to form public–private partnerships for deploying interim mobile coverage along key tourist routes well before 2026. Emergency response services like Rescue 1122 need permanent outposts, helicopter landing zones, and fast-response teams stationed near tourist hubs. Meanwhile, safety briefings, vehicle suitability checks, and optional route permits could help ensure only properly equipped and experienced drivers venture into high-risk zones.
The memories of the Swat family and the four young men from Gujrat must galvanize us, tourists, policymakers, telecom providers, and infrastructure planners, into collective action. Pakistan’s majestic northern frontier deserves to be celebrated, not feared. Turning these red flags into safeguards honors not only the lives lost, but the dreams of every traveler drawn to the beauty of the North.
Pakistan’s tourism industry, while still emerging, holds immense untapped potential. In 2024, top global destinations like the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, and France each earned between $77 billion and $215 billion in international tourism revenue. By contrast, Pakistan earned only around $1.3 billion from foreign visitors in 2023, though projections suggest this could rise to $4 billion by the end of 2025. Despite its modest international earnings, tourism already contributes approximately 5.8% to Pakistan’s GDP and supports nearly 4.7 million jobs, thanks largely to domestic travel, which generates around $22 billion annually.
A significant opportunity lies in Pakistan’s northern regions—Gilgit-Baltistan, Hunza, Swat, and Kaghan—home to some of the world’s most stunning landscapes and rich adventure tourism potential. Yet these areas remain critically underdeveloped in infrastructure, accessibility, and hospitality services. With targeted investment in transport, accommodation, and visitor services, these regions could attract 500,000 to 1 million international tourists annually, potentially adding $0.5 to $1 billion in new foreign revenue alone. This would not only boost the national economy, but also create local jobs, uplift rural communities, and reposition Pakistan as a leading destination for eco-tourism and high-altitude adventure.
Strengthening the North’s infrastructure is not just an economic imperative; it is a matter of responsibility. Only by transforming these dangers into safety measures can Pakistan offer not just beauty, but security. And only then will the promise of northern tourism truly be fulfilled.