Urges long-term strategic planning to boost tourism industry
President Dr Arif Alvi has said that on the ‘World Tourism Day’, they renewed their pledge for setting priorities to consider the potential of the tourism sector in order to advance the economic prosperity and progress of Pakistan.
“Pakistan is a country that has attractive and wonderful tourist sites in the world due to its remarkable landscape, diversity and rich history of ancient civilizations. It has also a religious tourism attraction,” the president said in a message on the occasion of “World Tourism Day” being observed across the globe today September 27. The president said the government of Pakistan had focused on this sector during the last few years.
As the theme of this year was ‘Rethinking Tourism”, the president said, they had the opportunity to rethink about this sector that had been first hit by the pandemic of Covid-19 along with the rest of the world and now it was badly affected by the super floods in Pakistan. “There is a dire need to come up with long-term strategic planning to boost the tourism industry on a sustainable basis and set new boundaries for securing its future,” he added. Besides the need for increasing the number of foreign tourists travelling in Pakistan, the president said programmes should be developed with a special focus on safe and secure tourism.
“I am sure that the government will utilize all its resources to turn the challenges into opportunities by restarting the industry from grass root level and ensuring the cooperation and collaboration of allied government agencies to come out of the crisis and rebuild better,” he observed. The president further said that tourism was an integral source of income for the people and it was certainly relevant and connected to the local economic development as well as to the improvement of civic facilities in the far-flung areas that would benefit the whole country in various aspects.
