Holiday rip-off

Two weeks ago, I travelled to Murree, Nathiagali, Kaghan and Naran. At first, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. But the exorbitant rates of hotels, food items and transport facilities put a dampener on the trip. These are some of the basic amenities that tourists need when they travel. When these facilities become expensive, an unwanted financial burden is imposed on travellers. More often than not, scuffles broke out between tourists and hotel agents over petty matters. In the absence of proper checks and balances, Murree’s businessmen are arbitrarily charging large amounts of money from visitors. In light of this experience, it seems that there is some truth to the claims made by the proponents of the ‘Boycott Murree’ campaign on social media. The government must fulfil its responsibility to address this problem at the earliest. If these grievances aren’t dealt with, our tourism industry will suffer.

Sadia Noor

Shikarpur