Staff Reporter
Peshawar
Pakistan will host the World Tourism Forum in year 2020 to be attended by 1,000 foreign delegates. The decision was taken during a meeting of Prime Minister Imran Khan with the delegation of World Tourism Forum led by its president Executive Board, here at the PM Office. Special Assistant to PM Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari was present. The five-day forum will be held to highlight Pakistan’s scenic beauty with immense potential of attracting international tourists.
He said eight new tourist resorts would be set up in Balochistan’s seaside strip. The prime minister said Pakistan’s different areas had diverse scope including mountain tourism and religious tourism. He mentioned that the government was taking effective steps to promote tourism, both locally and internationally. He said preservation of environment and upholding of native social values would be given a priority while promoting tourism.
The tourism sector in Pakistan has achieved tremendous growth during last one year; courtesy to PTI government’s new visa policy resulted in significant increase in religious, archeological and mountains tourism. The visa initiatives of the PTI led government attracted influx of domestic and foreign tourists in the country, famous for lofty mountains peaks like world highest K-2, Nanga Parbat, lush green valleys, archeological and religious site and natural tourists resorts stretching from Kunjrab Gilgit Baltistan to port City of Karachi.
The PTI govt. decisions to grant visas on arrival to citizens of 96 countries and e-visa facilities to 175 countries have witnessed hundreds of thousands of tourists this year in all tourists destinations including Murree, Naran, Kaghan, Ayubia Malam Jabba, Swat, Madain, Chitral, Mardan, Taxila,Takht Bhai, Swat, Mehr Gharh, Harapa and Moenjodharo. The government’s visas initiatives are attracting large number of tourists from Sri Lanka, China, South Korea and North Korea to visit Peshawa, Taxila and Swat museums where a rich collection of Bhudism were kept preserved.
As many as 20 new archaeological and tourists sites including construction of chair lift at Takhtbhai Mardan, Jolia Haripur and Budhkada Swat etc were identified. Tourism, which was the most neglected sector prior to 2013, had witnessed massive turnaround during last government of PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the record number of projects and schemes were completed besides significant increase in development budget of tourism sector.