African tourism always remained an epicentre of the global tourism industry due to its exceptional features linked with Africa’s cultural diversity, wealth of natural resources, the beauty of diverse wildlife, and magnificent natural landscapes.
The African continent’s extensive coastlines, mountain ranges, deserts, and rivers are important for international tourist communities. The evolution of African societies under different civilizations and the inevitable influences of colonial powers on the local public brought various changes in the political and economic state structures, raising Africa’s significance in the international academic communities.
There are several historical sites such as Robben Island of South Africa, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, the Pyramids of Egypt, Carthage city of Tunisia, Stone Town of Tanzania, Great Zimbabwe city, and the Castle of Good Hope, which provide a glimpse of African significance in the tourist communities interested in understanding the history of the international system and the African contribution in it.
The role of religion cannot be overlooked in debates of international religious histories, which have strong associations with the cultural and societal diversities of the African continent. The 11 Ethiopian Rock-hewn Churches of Lalibela and the Tewahedo Church (the largest of all Oriental Orthodox churches) symbolize Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity in Africa. In Ethiopia, the Christian religious festivals of different African countries attract international tourists from countries where societies are strongly associated with Christian public celebrations based on solid ideological traditions.
Akin to Ethiopian historical and spiritual sites, the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove of Nigeria, El Ghriba Synagogue of Tunisia, Osireion of Egypt, and Kalasa Lukangaba of Zambia present the religious diversity of the African continent. In addition to having a greater fascination for worship and pilgrimages, these religious sites marked Africa as a prominent centre of deep spiritual heritage. In this way, the rich cultural landscape of the continent substantially contributes to the global debates on the origins of religions and their worldwide spread. So, religious tourism creates the cooperative connections of Africa with the outside world, where cultural exchange largely contributes to the productive growth of the international tourism industry.
Despite these attractions, Africa remains an unpopular destination for Pakistani tourists due to the lack of adequate public awareness about the diverse and rich African tourism offerings. Famous safari destinations such as the Okavango Delta of Botswana, Masai Mara National Reserve of Kenya, Ngorongoro Crater of Tanzania, Laikipia of Kenya, and Madikwe Game Reserve of South Africa are famous international tourist attraction points while not having popularity in Pakistan’s tourist community.
A multifaceted and dynamic policy of the Pakistani government centred on a pragmatic and rational approach would effectively change the traditional societal consideration of Africa in Pakistan. The government of Pakistan is required to allocate sufficient funding to financially support the arrangement of Africa-centric special events, torus, and promotional activities explaining the exceptional features of the African continent. This approach would effectively spread public awareness about African wildlife, cultural festivals, societal diversity, and archaeological sites.
Moreover, the internationally famous national parks of Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, Namibia, and Ethiopia are not widely promoted in Pakistan. Most national parks in different countries are internationally recognized and listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List because of their incomparable natural beauty, unmatched ecological values, and wide range of biodiversity. According to the online UNESCO sources, the African continent has 98 properties inscribed on the World Heritage List, of which 54 are cultural, 39 are natural, and 5 are mixed-natured properties.
The discussion of African natural beauty cannot be completed without mentioning the waterfalls representing the rich natural water resources such as the Victoria Falls of Zambia, Table Mountain, Tugela, and Augrabies Falls of South Africa, Ouzoud Fall of Morocco, Kintampo Fall of Ghana, Kigezi and Murchison Falls of Uganda, Lope Fall of Gabon, and Gurara Fall of Niger. Apart from all these natural attractions, several African states present various opportunities to visit the well-preserved archaeological sites where the tourist communities can learn about human history. It has been proved with the discovery of Lucy (a collection of several hundred pieces of fossilized bone) in Ethiopia, and this Skelton marked as the major development in studying human evolution on the earth.
Pakistani travellers have yet to discover these characteristics of the African continent. Even the religious communities need to familiarize themselves with the historical associations of Africa with Islamic history. Africa is extensively recognized in Islamic history as the land of Bilal, a prominent figure in early Islamic history.
In this way, there is a need to promote African tourism in Pakistan, which could enable the government to increase the people-to-people connections between Islamabad and the leading African capitals. A concentrated framework of multileveled efforts is required in this regard, which would be powerful enough to address the historical challenges linked with the lack of awareness about Africa and the prevailing misconceptions about the African vision of development in Pakistan.
The Islamabad-based formal decision-makers need to realize the existing societal and communication gaps between Pakistani and African nations, which could be overcome by launching Africa-centric awareness campaigns in the society and launching subsidized improved travel packages. Both steps will facilitate the Pakistani tourist and business communities in exploring and understanding the untapped tourist and trading potentials of African nations.
Collaboration between the leading media outlets of Pakistan and the mainstream tourism boards of Africa could play an effective role in enhancing the scope of the tourism industry through launching different promotional videos, introducing various attractive travel plans, and arranging diverse cultural exchange public tours. To attract Pakistani travellers to various African tourist destinations, a thin layer of Pakistani travel blogs and vlogs has recently appeared.
A few Pakistani visitors venturing into Africa started sharing their journeys with numerous unidentified facts and exciting information. These promotional videos on African adventure, culture, and history are becoming popular in the local community through YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok in Pakistan. The combination of bloggers and vloggers venturing into Africa has started receiving positive feedback and widespread appreciation on different social media channels, which reflects the growing public curiosity and interest in the ineffectively explored African visitor destinations. Social media and traditional media channels are essential in changing the perceptions of African societies in Pakistan by providing interesting information about African travel. The spread of media-centric knowledge could ensure greater public accessibility to essential information regarding travel logistics, visa requirements, flight options, and suitable accommodations for Pakistani travellers.
The lack of direct flights between Pakistan and different African countries is a potential barrier hindering the scope of increased two-sided people-to-people connections. Pakistani visitors are generally constrained to avail the limited options of transit routes for their African travels, whereas the leaders of Pakistan and different African nations are determined to augment their bilateral collaboration in the social domain.
A few African nations have decided to operate direct flights in Pakistan, where the recent decision of the Ethiopian government to improve air connectivity between Addis Ababa and Islamabad is important. Launching Ethiopian Airlines’ direct flights to Karachi has enabled the two-sided government officials to widen their cooperative ties beyond the conventional fixed domains. In addition to Egypt, the direct flights to Ethiopia could lead other African nations to follow Addis Ababa’s efforts to strengthen the scope of African tourism in Pakistan. Establishing direct flights between Pakistan’s major cities and vital African destinations could develop a collaborative interaction in the aviation sector that would serve the trading interests of the two nations.
A multifaceted and dynamic policy of the Pakistani government centred on a pragmatic and rational approach would effectively change the traditional societal consideration of Africa in Pakistan. The government of Pakistan is required to allocate sufficient funding to financially support the arrangement of Africa-centric special events, torus, and promotional activities explaining the exceptional features of the African continent. This approach would effectively spread public awareness about African wildlife, cultural festivals, societal diversity, and archaeological sites. Thus, an altered visualization of the African continent in Pakistani society would help increase the interest and engagement of Islamabad in African tourism, benefiting both Pakistani visitors and key African tourist destinations.
