Often depicted in the western media as a country of Islamic fundamentalists, terror training camps, subjugated women and cricket cheats, Pakistan could seem a hard sell to the potential tourist. We rarely hear of the countries fascinating diversity, its well kept Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist shrines, the dizzyingly high mountains or the impressive sheer glaciers.



As a white, British tourist I was not ignored because I was a woman, or hissed at because I was a westerner. I was greeted with courtesy, respect and curiosity by Pakistani people, who welcomed me into their houses with a constant refrain of you are my guest.

The countries tourism secretary, Salim Gul Shaikh, said its time we told the world of the potential Pakistan holds for the tourist.

Next year will be Visit Pakistan year, advertising campaigns are branding Pakistan.

There is already a small, established tourism industry to build on. The Northern Areas, where the great mountain ranges of the Karakorums, Himalayas and Hindu Kush meet, have long been popular with climbers and trekkers. Meanwhile, the beautiful Kaghan valley in North West Frontier Province had also begun to build up a loyal local clientele before last years devastating earthquake struck, blocking the road to the main resort, damaging more than 100 hotels and threatening to kill off the tourism in the area.

However, the Pakistani people are extremely resilient and now that the roads have reopened they are looking forward to tourists returning to the area. The best thing you can do to help these people is to come here as a tourist, pay for jeep drivers, pay for porters, stay in hotels, eat in restaurants. By doing these things you will help the local community to re establish their livelihoods.

The official and national sport of Pakistan is field hockey, although cricket is more popular. The national cricket team has won the Cricket World Cup once in 1992, were runners up once in 1999 and co hosted the games twice in 1987 and 1996. Pakistan is also set to co host the 2011 Cricket World Cup, with Sri Lanka, India, and Bangladesh.

Other popular sports in Pakistan include football, and squash.

Pakistan has produced successful world class squash players such as Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan.

At an international level, Pakistan has competed many times at the Summer Olympics in field hockey, boxing, athletics, swimming, and shooting. Pakistanis medal tally remains at 10 medals while at the Commonwealth games and Asian Games it stands at 61 medals and 182 medals respectively. Hockey is the sport that Pakistan has been most successful at the Olympics, with three gold medals 1960, 1968 and 1984. Pakistan has also won the Hockey World Cup a record four times 1971, 1978, 1982 and 1994.