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incentive
The
Zen way of life
incentive With the arrival of
Ramzan in the middle of the summers, hoteling and other industries related to
tourism are likely to suffer losses. The revenues the tourism industry
players earn during the summers, or the return on their investments as they
like to put it, That is why the tourist
destinations get overcrowded during the days close to the advent of this
month. The room rates increase manifold, roads get choked with traffic and
many travellers are requested to head to some other destination as their
desired one is no more able to take the load of any additional tourists. Ahead of the month, it
seems that Ramzan is going to stay forever. This year the tourism
industry has decided to change the trend and attract tourists during the
month of Ramzan, says Tayyab Mir, Manager Publicity and Promotion at Pakistan
Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC).
He says the corporation has announced lucrative packages for tourists and
offered major discounts at its
state-of-the-art motels situated at prime locations of the country.
The discount in room rates
offered at Ayubia and Naran motels is 30 per cent and at those in Saidu
Sharif, Miandam, Chitral, Bamburet (Kalash Valley), Gilgit, Hunza, Sost
(Pak-China border), Skardu, Khaplu, Besham and other places is 50 per cent. “The room rates of PTDC
motels are already modest and become more affordable after the application of
discounts,” says Tayyab. For example, the regular daily room rents on single and double occupancy basis in Bamburat PTDC motel are Rs2300 and 2900, in Ayubia Rs2500 and Rs 3000, Saidu Sharif Rs2500 and Rs3600, Skardu Rs2000 and Rs2500, Sust Rs2200 and Rs2900, Khaplu Rs2300 and Rs2900 and Besham Rs2900 to Rs3600. “These rates remain valid throughout the year and do not climb with the sudden increase in the number of tourists,” says Tayyab, adding “You can apply the discount formula on these rates to get an idea of what it will cost you to stay at any of these places in Ramzan.”
Just like the PTDC, private
hotels are also offering Ramzan packages and trying to capitalise on their
certain strengths — such as their proximity to mosques where tourists can
offer prayers including Taraweeh. Their focus is primarily on ensuring enough
advance bookings without which they cannot work out the viability of
remaining open during the month and bearing operational expenses. Oasis Hotel, Murree, which
claims to be next only to Pearl Continental in Bhurban in terms of ratings
and standard, is extensively marketing its weekly and monthly Ramzan packages
on the social media and through other traditional means. For the room
available at this time for Rs 6500 per day, the hotel is offering a package
of Rs 24,000 per week and Rs 59,000 for a month excluding Eid days. T Khaqan Mehmood, manager of
Oasis, tells TNS they are receiving a large number of phone calls/enquiries
from prospective customers but the pace of advance bookings is slow. “Many
people are not yet decided on whether it is okay to go out on pleasure trips
or just to stay back home and pray. There are others who say they can go and
perform umrah with the type of amount we are charging from them,” he adds.
However, he hopes the number of bookings will rise once Ramzan starts and
people start coming there. “Very few people take decisions on their own. But they are always ready to follow others in hordes,” he says. Coming to regular tourists,
they are not easily convinced on making a booking in advance. For example,
Arif Bhatti, 40, a textile industry professional believes he can get a better
bargain on reaching a tourist destination. Unlike PTDC whose rates are
unchanged during the year, there are hundreds of hotels who agree to rates
which are a fraction of those mentioned, during off-season. “Paying in advance has
two main disadvantages. One, you may end up paying more and second, you do
not have a choice to switch accommodation if you are not satisfied with the
quality,” says Bhatti.
“The money they will save
by not running air-conditioners back home is much more than they will spend
on staying here where you do not need to even turn on the ceiling fan,” he
says making his offer more tempting. Going by the experience of the last couple of years, it seems that even though outdoor activities are limited during the day and eating in the open prohibited during the fasting hours, there is a lot of activity after iftaar. The bazaars remain open throughout the night and food outlets remain open till call for Fajr prayers, and offer Sehri meals. Hotels have plans to serve
food during daytime in rooms only to children, patients such as diabetics who
cannot fast for medical reasons, elders and those who are exempted from
fasting on different grounds. Eating in the open is to be
avoided at any cost. Locals can get extremely harsh with anyone acting
against the sanctity of the month, they warn.
The
Zen way of life Japan is
unforgettable for a number of reasons: Within a few days of my arrival in
Tokyo in October 2004, I lear While going to my
university in Wakamatsu-chu in Shinjuku Ward, I used to see many owners
walking their pet dogs and cats. These pet animals were as silent as Japanese
children, older people and graveyards. During five years of my stay in Japan;
I did not come across a single pet dog barking at anything. I found out that residents
could be moved out of their apartments just for talking loudly on the phone.
Playing loud music in domestic spaces is unthinkable. After I first visited a
Japanese graveyard in Ikebukuro in December 2004, I started going there
regularly to contemplate and meditate. I found the offerings of beer and
other drinks to the people at the graves fascinating. I heard horns only twice in
Japan, both when Japanese men threw themselves before the train in Shimbashi
station. Some of the hopeless and excluded Japanese kill themselves in the
subway stations. For the onlookers, the successful suicides are a practical
revenge from the Japanese society for imposing unquestionable, nonnegotiable
and unbreakable social order on Japan. Dominance of silence does
not mean that the Japanese do not make noise. They can only make permissible
n Tokyo is a city where time
actually exists, where minutes and seconds matter. I would always know it was
8am when the manager of my dormitory would enter the dormitory door. One can
fix the time of one’s watch with the arrival time of Japanese people as my
father used to fix his watch by the news on radio. The professors would
arrive five minutes before the start of their classes. A Japanese friend warned me at the beginning of my stay: “Please never get late at your appointments. This is not Pakistan.” Japanese don’t stop being
punctual even if it proves disastrous for them. For example, in 2005, a
driver derailed the train near Osaka. He was feeling guilty for driving slow
even though he was late by only a few minutes. The derailed train killed more
than 50 people and injured hundreds. At subway stations, the salary men, a
euphemistic term for loyal and docile workers of Japanese economy, run so
seriously to their trains and exits that one starts thinking that they are on
a mission to save the planet. Cleanliness is almost a
national trait. It is best reflected in the words of Siochiro Honda, the
owner of Honda Company. He believed nothing meaningful was achievable without
practicing cleanliness. One of my professors, Hisayoshi Hashimoto, told me
Honda would clean his company’s toilet once in a week. He continued this
practice until his death in 1991. Like Honda, most of the
shopkeepers clean the front portions of their shops almost every evening. The
older people pick cigarette butts from the pedestrian ways. The residents of
my dormitory in Matsudo, a place near Tokyo, used to greet our cleaning lady
before she started work. Once a resident forgot to greet her; the manager of
the dormitory very politely asked the girl to apologise to the cleaning lady
for her forgetfulness. Not being first in greeting the cleaners is an
impolite act in Japan. Tokyo’s safe water
supplies are not less than a blessing. Clean water was one of the most
important things in my life in Tokyo. It was only once that I drank smelly
water in an apartment built immediately after the World War II in Funabashi.
Its pipelines were really rusted but I did not get sick. If one wants to be valued
as a customer, Japan is the right place. At one time, I ran short of money
and thought to return some shirts I had purchased a few months earlier. I was
positive the shopkeeper would refuse to refund the money as I had lost the
receipt of my purchase. To my surprise, the shop manager offered me a chair
and requested me to wait. His assistant took half an hour to find out the
copy of the receipt of purchase, then apologised for keeping me waiting, and
returned the full money. A sales woman bowed to me and walked with me to the
door of the shop. At the door she bowed to me again and said: “thank you so
much for giving us a chance to serve you, sir.” A friend of mine lost her
monthly train ticket in the train track during the typhoon. She requested the
train company to find the pass. Two officials of the company were deputed for
the task but they failed to find it. The next day, the train company not only
gave my friend a new pass but also returned the money she had spent to buy
tickets. Japanese come across as naïve
people. Taking clue from my last name, Hussain, many of my Japanese
acquaintances would ask if I was a relative of Saddam Hussain. I would just
laugh at this question. It would be a little unfair to declare the Japanese
have no sense of humour but the fact is that it’s hard for them to get the
joke. Once a Japanese girl asked me very politely, “Do you have some
terrorist friends in Pakistan?” “Yes, I have” I replied sarcastically.
“Do you meet them?” She asked. “Yes,” I said. “You are so brave and
dangerous,” she said. I just laughed because she was so polite. The writer teaches at
Forman Christian College University Lahore
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are
not there in Ramzan. Traditionally, the local tourists and holidaymakers have
preferred to spend the fasting month in their houses with their families.
he
hotel management has no objection to the idea of different members of a
family staying in the room in turns. You can book a room for a month in your
name and make those related to you occupy it one by one. Their identity will
have to be proved to the management any way.
There
are countless budget and low-cost hotels as well which are offering rooms for
dirt-cheap rates. Khurshid Ali at Mahboob Hotel, Kalaam, is offering a 3-bed
room for Rs800 per night during Ramzan. “The same room is fetching around
Rs1500 nowadays. Situated right in the middle of main bazaar of Kalam, it
gives the guests an opportunity to move around the bazaar throughout the
night and shop without fear.” 
nt
it was impossible to survive there with Pakistani habits. I observed that
rules and order were more important than anything else and small things as
laughing louder than your boss were dangerous adventures. While in Japan, I
could never easily differentiate between formal and informal, public and
private, and sometimes, speech and silence. 
oise
in permissible places. Noise is permitted only before the noise machines in
Pachinkos and Karaoke. Pachinkos is a gambling game for the young and older
Japanese. In fact, it is more like venting stress than gambling. Karaoke is
the national Japanese pastime. There is a big book to select songs to sing
along with playback music on a Karaoke machine. My favourites were John
Denver’s Country Roads; Take Me Home and John Lenon’s Imagine. 
