ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGNES BEING FACED BY TURKIYE AND PAKISTAN’S TOURISM SECTOR: CAUSES AND IMPACTFUL SOLUTIONS

Abstract

Turkiye and Pakistan are regarded as highly diverse tourist destinations due to the picaresque landscapes, high mountains, rivers, lakes, glaciers, ever flowing streams and the UNESCO recognized world historical heritages, Turkiye, a European-Asian country, is ranked as the 5^th whereas Pakistan, an Asian country, stands at number 104 out of 119 international tourist destinations. Both countries are extremely popular as tourist revenue generating destinations; however, they face multiple environmental challenges due to many reasons, and thus, are the victims of the environmental degradation, Comparatively, Pakistan is more vulnerable than Turkiye. It is observed that mainly overtourism, besides other causes, is badly affecting the Tourism sector and have caused the climate change. The environmental degradation such as Infrastructure depletion, Climate change like rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and increased frequency of natural disasters, Pollution such as noise, air, water and land, and Conservation like inability to protect natural resources, such as forests, wildlife, and water bodies. The tourists’ negative and positive behaviour plays a vital role in shaping a destination. Thus, the Ministries of Tourism in Turkiye and Pakistan have laid down certain regulatory frameworks and strategies to overcome the environmental issues, to control the tourists’ influx at certain hotspots and to divert it to the other discovered locations, to put emphasis on urging the tourists to abide by the laws and regulations, to install warning boards, to impose a penaltyon the rule violation and issue an advisory to have a control over the environmental challenges. Certain strategies like walk a cause, races,Do it Yourself (DIY) appeal, clean the beach and rivers competitions, awareness programmes, educating and training the tourists, hotel and staff management and the local communities are under way to let Tourism industry thrive as one of the most generating revenue sectors in Turkiye and Pakistan. If not controlled, it might result into losing popularity as favourite international destinations.