‘Malam Jabba zipline a step in the right direction’

LONDON: The launch of a zipline in Swat’s Malam Jabba resort is a “step in the right direction” to help attract tourism to Pakistan from families who have teenagers, particularly boys, Xperience Pakistan chief executive Saadia Baber has said.

“At Xperience Pakistan, we understand that for Pakistan to compete at a global level, we have to package and sell a product in keeping with the global trends. Therefore, we offer more than just destination holidays to Pakistan, our packages are experienced and interest based focused on food, sports, meditation and adventure as well as the more traditional culture and scenic based packages showing the beauty that the North has to offer,” Baber said.

The only challenge they have are with families who have teenagers, particularly boys. “Malam Jabba’s launch of the Zipline is a step in the right direction and we hope other resorts in Pakistan will follow suit,” she said. “Whilst there are hidden gems like Oasis in Lahore, many are for members only — making it impossible to take overseas tourists.”

She added that as a global community the one thing that people are not willing to sacrifice are holidays. “If times are hard we will resort to buying own label or go out less but our need for an annual holiday is recession proof,” she said.

“Part of this is related to the fact that with such fast paced 24 hour lives, we realise that a holiday is the only way to switch off and our only quality time with ourselves or our families.”She said over time the idea of what is important for a holiday has changed, whereas once upon a time people were content with the agent just organising a plane ticket and accommodation, but now holidaymakers now want more from our agents and destinations.

Activities and excursions have now become customers’ number one priority ahead of accommodation and location, according to the ‘Global Travel 2014-20’ report by research company Phocuswright. Globally the activities sector is worth £170bn this year and is expected to grow to £182bn by next year, according to Tui’s destination experiences managing director.

It was said that the sector was outstripping overall tourism growth, figures show that 38 per cent of people chose activities and excursions as the main aspect that influenced their holiday choice, with proximity to beach and quality of accommodation coming in second and third place.

Baber said: “With such a growing sector, the government of Pakistan should ensure that the strategy for tourism includes more development of adventure and interest based activities and Malam Jabba Ski resort should be proud of its achievement and continue to lead the way.”