Tourism industry hits the skids in NWFP

The most lucrative of the tourist destinations – Swat – lies in ruins and is inaccessible to all but those inside armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and the small businesses that feed into the tourist industry are all but wiped out. The grimmer in Swat has badly affected the tourism industry in the whole of NWFP– foreign as well as domestic tourists have stopped touring beautiful lush-green valleys of the province. Though law and order situation in Galyaat, Kaghan, Dir and Chitral remains normal yet terror has become a nightmare for tourists who prefer not to visit these resorts for vacation. Dear readers, would you second the opinion that under the existing circumstances, we need to target domestic tourism and encourage locals to keep our economy on the move? Another step could be to engage local populace (majority) and provide them with more resources for socio-economic development; it will discourage the militants (minority) and help eradicate terrorism and extremism from these areas. Let us know what can be done to revive the moribund tourism industry in NWFP?