Chakar The Great
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(CNN) — When the British Backpacker Society released its list of 20 adventure travel destinations for 2018, the top spot was taken by a somewhat surprising entry: Pakistan.
Citing "mountain scenery that is beyond anyone's wildest imagination" and the friendliness of the locals, the society says the South Asian country will change "every preconception that you ever held about this area of the world."
So is Pakistan ready to step up?
Though the country was a tourism hotspot in the 1970s, recent decades have spawned plenty of fears about Pakistan travel, owing to political instability and terrorist attacks.
But though threats remain and there are indeed places travelers should avoid -- the US State Department still advises its citizens to reconsider traveling there entirely -- improved security backed by a government-led push to promote tourism means visitor numbers are on the rise.
In 2017, an estimated 1.7 million foreigners visited Pakistan, 200,000 more than the previous year.
In January 2018, it was announced that the country would be offering a multiple-entry 30-day visa on arrival to tourists from 24 countries including the US and UK.
Bookings are up 100% this year for Wild Frontiers, a tour operator based in the UK and US that have been running trips to Pakistan for 20 years.
For founder Jonny Bealby, it's not difficult to see why the country is appealing to travelers once again.
'Epic accessible landscapes'
"I call it adventure travel's best-kept secret," he says.
"For the adventurous traveler it offers so much. More epic accessible landscapes than you will find anywhere else, meaning landscapes you drive to rather than trek for days to.
"In Hunza [a mountainous valley in the Gilgit-Baltistan region] for example, you can sit on the rooftop at your hotel having breakfast and you've got seven 7,000-meter peaks all around you, which is pretty incredible."
Pakistan's beautiful Hunza Valley.
AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Bealby also points to the country's interesting cultural allures -- both in terms of architecture and people.
"The cuisine is of course great and the hotel accommodation is actually a lot better than most people think," he adds.
"Tie all those things together and you've got the perfect adventure travel destination."
According to Bealby, tourism in the north of the country has not yet been restored to Pakistan's heyday during the early to mid-nineties when hotels would need to be booked at least a year in advance, yet he has certainly noticed a change in attitudes in recent years.
"I would say that the security situation in Pakistan has improved radically in the last three years and it is now becoming a real possibility for people that previously might have been too wary of going to a place which they felt was unsafe."
Citing "mountain scenery that is beyond anyone's wildest imagination" and the friendliness of the locals, the society says the South Asian country will change "every preconception that you ever held about this area of the world."
So is Pakistan ready to step up?
Though the country was a tourism hotspot in the 1970s, recent decades have spawned plenty of fears about Pakistan travel, owing to political instability and terrorist attacks.
But though threats remain and there are indeed places travelers should avoid -- the US State Department still advises its citizens to reconsider traveling there entirely -- improved security backed by a government-led push to promote tourism means visitor numbers are on the rise.
In 2017, an estimated 1.7 million foreigners visited Pakistan, 200,000 more than the previous year.
In January 2018, it was announced that the country would be offering a multiple-entry 30-day visa on arrival to tourists from 24 countries including the US and UK.
Bookings are up 100% this year for Wild Frontiers, a tour operator based in the UK and US that have been running trips to Pakistan for 20 years.
For founder Jonny Bealby, it's not difficult to see why the country is appealing to travelers once again.
'Epic accessible landscapes'
"I call it adventure travel's best-kept secret," he says.
"For the adventurous traveler it offers so much. More epic accessible landscapes than you will find anywhere else, meaning landscapes you drive to rather than trek for days to.
"In Hunza [a mountainous valley in the Gilgit-Baltistan region] for example, you can sit on the rooftop at your hotel having breakfast and you've got seven 7,000-meter peaks all around you, which is pretty incredible."
Pakistan's beautiful Hunza Valley.
AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Bealby also points to the country's interesting cultural allures -- both in terms of architecture and people.
"The cuisine is of course great and the hotel accommodation is actually a lot better than most people think," he adds.
"Tie all those things together and you've got the perfect adventure travel destination."
According to Bealby, tourism in the north of the country has not yet been restored to Pakistan's heyday during the early to mid-nineties when hotels would need to be booked at least a year in advance, yet he has certainly noticed a change in attitudes in recent years.
"I would say that the security situation in Pakistan has improved radically in the last three years and it is now becoming a real possibility for people that previously might have been too wary of going to a place which they felt was unsafe."
