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Boycott Murree, a campaign that went viral in aftermath of ill treatment of families at the hands of the residents of Murree, left mall deserted and proved how powerful social media is.
Firstly, all those sharing boycott Murree must once think has any local from Murree ever dealt with them or their families in an inappropriate or indecent manner. Even if yes, is there a possibility that only a faction of individuals are mischievous and such incidents even happen in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
So, how many of us have made the video viral and requested the nation to boycott them. I am not saying voicing against such blatant acts of inappropriate behaviors is wrong. I am just requesting to have a look at this naked profiling and bias against an area. A video was shared a year earlier by a girl from Islamabad who went to tour northern areas. Her harassment was defined by the audience as a byproduct of her boldness and no one said ban the tourists who visit without families.
I have been to Murree as a local resident earlier and a tourist later. In my humble opinion, I beg the pardon of the reader if it hurts his/her sentiments, the visitors or tourists themselves forget how sacred it is to respect families when they visit tourist places without their families.
Visit different tourist places and name those places where one can get hold of things at wholesale price, discount or even at retail price prevalent in major cities. Except few, all tourist places are expensive and natives’ only source of income is this premium. I am not saying that they must charge premium, I am only trying to say this is a business model practiced across board and if a boycott has to be initiated then why only Murree.
I feel for the families who have been treated badly and I believe instead of boycotting Murree, why not make the culprits pay so that no one dares to repeat such act at any tourist place. Murree is not a good tourist place but let us make it a good one to visit. You are being charged unfairly, report the prices at local administrator office who checks prices and is responsible for maintaining price levels.
You believe rooms are expensive, stop renting rooms as we all know principle of demand and supply works in all conditions. Profiling against any area creates more hostility and brings more bad than good things. Try and understand locals of the areas who depend upon the tourists for bread and butter.
By boycotting, less harm is done unto those who are reaping huge benefits and more loss is borne by those who are hardly making both end meets. Let us try to make this tourist place live to our expectations rather than making it die an unnatural death.
