Promoting Chitral as an Attractive Destination Through Sport Events .
Promoting Chitral as an Attractive Destination Through Sport Events
By Shams Uddin
Sports is one of the most effective mediums to promote different regions across Pakistan as a must-visit destination. Sports events have become an inalienable part of the tourism industry hugely contributing to the global economy in recent years.
Chitral, with its suitable climatic conditions, is ideal for hosting sporting events with its huge sports-loving people of all ages and growing population of youth having passion and skills for different sports—freestyle polo, football, volleyball, table tennis, skiing, skating, white water surfing, marathon race, and mountaineering. By organizing well-publicized sporting events across the Chitral region, we will be able to attract a growing number of national and foreign tourists to the region and will be able to effectively market it as the most attractive destination in northern Pakistan.
Besides free-style polo, football is the much-loved sport in Chitral. The youth of Chitral have stamina and skills in the field, which is being recognized nationally and internationally. For instance, from Chitral, three young people have had represented Pakistan in international footballing events. Likewise, most of the sports seats in different national universities across Pakistan go to Chitrali students because of their footballing skills/talents, they easily qualify for the purpose.
Today there was a wonderful football match in the Chitral stadium organized under the supervision of the District Football Association (DFA), with the very active role of Mr. Hussain Ahmed, the President of DFA. It is a tournament of veteran footballers watched by a huge crowd in the stadium. The quality of the match was very good. The dodging tactics of the players, passing skills, and the accuracy and force of their kicks, and the way they scored some of the goals were of exalted quality by any definition.
A young man from Chitral has been a national table tennis champion and representing Pakistan at international table tennis events.
Hosting sports events has been a focus of destination marketers as a strategy to enhance any destination’s image and differentiate its tourism products.
Based on the above plea, the government of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is requested to think about organizing sporting events for the promotion of the Chitral region as an attractive tourist destination. The people of Chitral will provide every sort of voluntary service on their part, as they have normally been doing with regard to sporting events.
