During the lockdown KPCTD compensates the owners of the hotels, tour operators and travel agents by waiving off the license fee for one year, Spokesperson
Wasim Sajjad
PESHAWAR
Waqas Ahmad from Lower Dir lives away from home, in the picturesque valley of Kumrat at Upper Dir in Khyber Pakhtunkhwar (KP). He is a waiter in a local hotel. He rises up with the sun and is thinking about breakfast even as he eats his. Soon the tourists who visit the scenic valley from the country or abroad would be waking up need to be served breakfast before they leave to explore the valleys and forests.
“I have to support my family, “he Waqas, dressed in the waiter’s uniform. “This has been my routine for the last three years since I got the job.”
Kumrat is known for its verdant beauty, high mountains and snow capped peaks in winter. Lately, the government has been working to build the local tourism potential to attract national and international tourists. These past few years have seen have seen a regular flow of tourists to this mountain resorts and that keeps Waqas busy at all hours. His day’s labour ends only when silence descends over the valley at nightfall.
Before the pandemic, he earned 15 to 18 thousand a month, enough to help him make ends meet. But these last few months have greatly reduced the prospects of the tourism industry and those associated with it, says Waqas, 22.
The coronavirus adversely affected the tourism industry for two reasons: Firstly, a lockdown was imposed by the government during the first wave and the tourists from different parts of the country were not allowed to visit the place in summers, a peak tourism season.
Secondly, people locked themselves in homes due to the fear of contracting the virus, deferring vacation plans at a time when families usually undertake these.
“Life this year has been so uncertain,” he said. “We live with constant tension, afraid of what may happen to us next.” As the industry closed down and the people associated with it lost jobs and revenue, Waqas’ family faced a bleak future.
“The cycle of life for us here in the mountains came to a halt as the lockdown was imposed. There was nothing to be done because there is nothing else to support you. All our savings were spent on expenses.”
He felt nervous as his other friends working in different hotels were fired from the jobs without any compensation from the management. And it wasn’t just the restaurants and hotels but businesses faced the same bleak prospects.
Moreover, the majority of hotels dependent on the tourism industry had undertaken downsizing to manage their businesses. However, he was supported by his hotel management by just cutting his salary by Rs 4 thousand.
The manager of the hotel Muhammad Tariq said that business was about to collapse and for the survival they had to borrow money from friends and relatives to compensate the workers. He said, “The tourism industry is seasonal. Our business starts when the season gets mild or hot. Usually, from October the business is closed down due to the snow fall and extreme cold weather making the survival for the locals difficult and for the tourists dangerous.”
Due to the snowfall of four to five feet each year in Kumrat, the closure of industry occurs. Last year when the corona virus erupted in Pakistan the hotels were already closed due to snows.
Zalan Jamsheed, the owner of the hotel where Waqas Ahamad works said, “We have to wait for the season which starts after the end of Ramadan. Very little people come before Ramadan. This year when Ramadan ended there was a strict lockdown. No one was allowed to visit any tourist spot across the province which led them to make cuts to the salaries of the workers.”
Zalan said that other hotels were firing workers from the job but they didn’t do so, however, they were compelled to cut about 3-4 thousand from the workers’ salaries.
Adding, “We knew it was a hard time and we had to survive. We couldn’t leave the workers in hard times, while they are giving us their worthy services. Zalan Jamsheed said that they pay Rs 460,000 annually as a rent to the owner of the building. At the time when everyone was compensating with their clients, the owner of the building initially didn’t compensate, however, on their time and again request he compensated one lac from the required amount of money.
He warned that the second wave of covid-19 continued, they would be compelled to lose their business. He said that they followed the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP’s) from the government to the maximum level.
Mask and sanitizers were made compulsory for the workers but it was too difficult to implement all the required SOPs in the area. Zalan Jamsheed said that they had made losses of about 0.5this year and had decided just to survive till the corona pandemic ends. He said that 6-7 hotels are at the locality and the losses to the business industry in Kumrat only could be Rs3 to 5 million.
Hundreds of tourists from Peshawar visit Kumrat annually. Suleman Khan, who is associated with the transport business, said that he visits each year in the Eid vacations to the northern areas of the province. He had planned to visit Kumrat this year and saved about sixty thousand rupees for the tour.
He said, “I took my family with myself and travelled till Chakdara, Dir Lower, where police had instilled a checkpoint and people were not allowed to go ahead.”
Adding that they were sent back from Dir Lower area. He said that he spent the saved money here on other things when he was rejected the entry to the spot.
Suliman Khan said that his family were unhappy because they didn’t go anywhere in the previous Eid. However, he convinced them to take them the coming year for the tour.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Culture and Tourism Department (KPCTD) when contacted about the losses to the tourism industry due to coronavirus, the spokesperson Saad Bin Awais told this scribe that the tourism industry has faced 10.2 billion losses during covid-19 lockdown.
He said, “The KPCTD has compensated the owners of the hotels, tour operators and travel agents by waiving off the license fee for one year.” Whereas the workers and others involved with the tourism sectors, the department didn’t have resources to compensate, however, he added that the government of Pakistan has compensated each deserving of 12,000 through Ihsas Program Scheme.
Mr. Saad added that in the wake of lockdown after the first wave, some 4.6 million national and international tourists have visited different parts of, especially Malakand and Hazara Division, which not only helped in overcoming the job losses but also gave opportunity to the business to generate additional revenues.
