AT a recent event in Bangkok organized to showcase activities undertaken in the past decade to promote Pakistan-Thailand bilateral people-to-people ties, tourism and investment, I was invited to be one of the two speakers.
The other speaker was Pakistan’s Ambassador to Thailand, HE Rukhsana Afzal. The focus of my talk was the potential for Buddhist Heritage tourism from ASEAN to Pakistan. I highlighted the activities that have taken place to date – literally scores of them – the positive steps undertaken by the government of Pakistan and SIFC towards Pakistan’s heritage promotion and the 10 year strategy that has been devised by GTPL towards the promotion of Gandhara for Buddhist pilgrims. The last component targeting 550 million Buddhists of the world to come to their “Mecca” in Pakistan can lead to the creation of a $30 billion mega-sector. In previous articles, I have discussed the ten steps need to make this happen.
In her presentation, Ambassador Rukhsana Afzal gave a detailed presentation on the past and future of Pak-Thai ties. Her talk covered myriad topics including cultural exchanges, academic partnerships and bilateral tourism. She also touched upon the current state of the long discussed and stalled bi-lateral free trade agreement. She strongly encouraged B2B relationship promotion and the potential for Thai SMEs to invest in Pakistan. The talks were very well received and a lively discussion ensued. A few of the Thai participants had previously visited Pakistan to make documentaries on Gandhara and visit the historic sites of Gandhara with their senior monks.
As the discussion ensued, I realized that no one in the audience once raised the issue of security in Pakistan. It was refreshing to note that Pakistan’s continuous work to show the real Pakistan, not the Pakistan tainted by misperceptions, had borne positive results. On another note though, Thais are very frugal and cost conscious and one audience member asked about the duration and cost of flight to Pakistan. To answer accurately, I looked the Thai Airways online application, and shared the price of an economy and business round trip to Pakistan. We are perhaps used to it, but frankly, the price was shocking to the Thai audience.
As I dug deeper, the following fact emerged which would discourage tourists and investors from coming to Pakistan; the cost of the air ticket. The cost of Thai airways between Pakistan and Thailand frankly seems to be monopolistic and extortionate. Let me expand on this. For a random one week trip in the middle of August, the flight from Bangkok to Islamabad was TB 27,000 (USD 813). For comparison, the flight from Bangkok to Tokyo was TB 24,005 (USD 662) and Bangkok to Melbourne was TB 27,535 (USD 830). Couple the price of the air-ticket to the fact that Bangkok-Islamabad is a 4.30 hours flight while Bangkok-Tokyo is 6.50 hours and Bangkok-Melbourne is 8 hours. The Pakistan leg, being the most expensive, with older planes and fully booked flights would discourage tourists from travelling to Pakistan. I myself would choose to go to Japan and Australia for the same price.
Similar discouraging scenario exists for business travelers between Thailand and Pakistan, but with a twist. Most SME travelers prefer to travel in the business class. However, they are price conscious and don’t want to waste money. And in this, the Pakistan government if to blame. During desperate financial times when Pakistan was on the brink of bankruptcy two years ago, the interim regime put a “business class tax” on all business class tickets. As a result, to travel in business class on the Bangkok to Islamabad leg, the Pakistan government taxes imposed a ridiculous PKR 221,000 (USD 789) in taxes, with total fare coming to TB 81,615 (USD 2,458) for a mid-August trip. Most SME owners would pass on this travel. For comparison, the business class trip between Bangkok and Tokyo in the same time frame would be TB 72,855 (USD 2194).
Travel is a necessity, not a luxury. If Pakistan wants to encourage tourists and investors, it needs to eliminate the exorbitant taxes that have been imposed on business travel. Concurrently Pakistan needs to work with Thai Airways to encourage them to lower their rate. Finally, Pakistan needs to get more airlines to fly between ASEAN countries and Pakistan to encourage competition and ensure ease of travel. Barring these three, Pakistan is not going to realize the vision of enhanced tourism and business investment in Pakistan
—The writer is a former Senior Advisor to the Government and a member of the APP Think Tank and Pakistan’s Buddhist Heritage Promotion Ambassador for GTPL, a company under SIFC.
