Pakistan is an ideal destination for Thailand tourists particularly those who undertake journeys to Buddhist sites round the year and spend time in meditation or visiting the Buddhist places in Taxila, Swat, Peshawar and TakhtBhai in Pakistan, etc.
This was said by the keynote speaker Imran Shauket at a Business-to-Business (B2B) meeting held with the tour operators of Thailand and Pakistan on the sidelines of Thailand International Tourism Fair (TITF) in Thailand’s capital.
Charge d’Affaires of the Pakistan embassy, YasirHussain, ZahidAman from the Indus-Siam Company, representatives from the Pakistan Embassy, the Thai Travel Agents Association and the Pakistani tour operators attended the B2B meeting.
The event offered an opportunity for international and local tour operators to meet and form ties. In his presentation Imran Shauket said, Thailand is a country that has become a world leader among the nations in boosting tourism and has topped the list of the top world tourism destinations followed by the UK.
Some 14 operators from Pakistan and an equal number of Thai operators came together at this event and formed long term partnerships.
Imran Shauket gave a presentation on the diversity, rich tourism potential particularly in Buddhist heritage and rich tourism destinations in Pakistan.
I am here to talk about the misperceptions and show the real potential of Pakistan, he said.
Imran was asked to be the speaker since he has been an integral part of promoting Pakistan-Thailand cultural and Buddhist ties in the past decade and his efforts resulted in enormous increase in the number of tourists from Thailand to Pakistan.
He shared facts and figures to address the misperceptions about Pakistan by showing the Country Crime Index 2023 (Pakistan is ranked at 86th lowest on the 2023 list of crime index compared to France at 36, Malaysia at 46 and India at 77) and shared other figures showing Pakistan in a very positive light.
He said Pakistan would be the 3rd largest country with the 14th largest economy (bigger than South Korea or Saudi Arabia) by 2050.
YasirHussain gave a detailed presentation on the beauty and diversity of Pakistan and highlighted the efforts of the Pakistan embassy and the government in facilitating the tourists from Thailand to Pakistan.
Mr. Sitthichai, VP of the Thai Travel Agents Association spoke about the opportunities to take the relationship forward. The last hour was dedicated to B2B interactions. Later, ZahidAman presented a book about Pakistan ‘Colours of Pakistan’ to Mr Sitthichai.
