Staff Reporter
The participants of a national webinar on “Harnessing Sustainable Tourism Potential in the New Normal” have urged the federal and provincial governments to develop monitoring mechanisms for the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) before opening the tourism sector.
We should learn from the previously opened sectors such as construction, trade centres and shops, and mosques where implementation of SOPs was hardly seen, the same or worse could be the case of opening the tourists’ destinations to what the recreation-starved mob is waiting for, said they.
The webinar organized by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) and DTNTV highlighted the need for a careful evaluation of the situation on ground and called for taking maximum care while making any decision in this regard.
The speakers included Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, Chairperson of the Special Committee of the Pakistan Tourism Board Aftab ur Rehman Rana, Senior Private Sector Specialist (Tourism) with the World Bank Group Kiran Afzal, Özyeðin University (Istanbul) Hospitality and Tourism Business Management student Shaaref Munir, Tourism Development Corporation Punjab (TDCP) Managing Director Tanveer Jabbar, Sindh Tourism Department Deputy Director Murtaza Daudpota, maritime tourism expert with National Institute of Maritime Affairs (NIMA) Cdr Muhammad Akhtar, De Las Gul chief executive and former MPA and Minister for Women Development Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Meraj Hamayun Khan, Tourism department Gilgit-Baltistan director Iqbal Hussain, Baltistan Association of Tour Operators (BATO) chairman Muhammad Iqbal, Environmentalist from Quetta Dr Nilofar Jamil, Panoramic Tours chief executive Tahir Imran and Hashoo Foundation chief executive Ayesha Khan.
Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed emphasized strategies to attract international tourism. Our wonderful desserts, marines and coastal parts and high mountains could play centre of attraction. But unfortunately we cannot learn towards their recreational needs, said he.
Devcom-Pakistan Director Munir Ahmed said implementation of SOPs would play a pivotal role in sustaining tourism in the coming days.
Aftab Rana said sustainable tourism refers to a broad range of tourism ventures that take into account ideas of sustainable development.
Kiran Afzal said in the times of COVID-19, the tourism industry has taken an unprecedented hit across the global with several industry stakeholders declaring this as the ‘first one affected and the last one to recover’. The research bodies have revised their initial ‘tourism receipts damages’ estimates from US$400 billion to a whopping US$900 billion.
The World Bank’s own estimates confirm that South Asia is on its way to losing 10 million jobs in tourism and related sectors.
Shaaref Munir on the occasion presented a ‘safe hospitality model’ from Istanbul (Turkey) and described in detail many aspects of how the Turkish tourism and hospitality sector is taking care of social distancing, and other preemptive measures. “It is the social awareness and professional approaches that are leading the Turkish safe hospitality practices to a success by reducing the risk factor”, he added.
