Govt. to promote tourism as a national cause Zulfi Bukhari
Govt. to promote tourism as a national cause Zulfi Bukhari
Pakistan has great potential to attract tourists and government
would promote tourism as a national cause to open the country for local and
foreign tourists. This was said by Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari, Special Assistant
to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Chairman, National Tourism
Coordination Board while addressing a press conference at Islamabad Chamber
of Commerce & Industry on Pakistan Tourism Summit being organized by jointly
by ICCI and Landmark Communication at Jinnah Convention Centre, Islamabad
from April 2-3, 2019.
Syed Zulfi Bukhari said that Prime Minister was very keen to promote Pakistan as
a destination of tourists. He said that tourism was very profitable sector and
private sector should come forward to invest in this industry while the government
would fully facilitate them. He said government was planning short and long term
plans to promote tourism and major focus would be on inbound tourists as
promotion of inbound tourism would pave way for attracting foreign tourists. He
said government has removed NOC requirements for foreigners that was a big
step to promote tourism. He said PTDC would be revamped to promote tourism.
He appreciated the initiative of ICCI and Landmark for organizing summit on
tourism and said that more such summits were needed to promote this sector.
Addressing the press conference, Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President,
Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that the PTI government was
keen to promote tourism and the purpose of organizing Pakistan Tourism Summit
was to highlight the tourism potential of Pakistan to attract more tourists to the
country. He said tourism would improve foreign reserves, promote business and
investment and create more jobs in the country. He appreciated the decision of
the government to abolish NOC requirements for foreigners to visit Pakistan and
termed it a highly positive development that would greatly facilitate foreign
tourists to visit the places of their choice in Pakistan for tourism purpose. He said
that panel discussions on 7 topics of tourism will be held in the Summit that
would lead to development of good proposals for promoting tourism in the
country. He stressed that government should consider those proposals for
implementation in order to make Pakistan a destination of first choice for tourists.
Speaking at the occasion, Syed Muhammad Ali Hamdani, Chief Executive
Officer, Landmark Communications said that the two-day summit shall bring all
major state institutions, national leadership, business & corporate sector,
diplomatic diaspora, media, social influencers, civil society and international
stakeholders under one roof for the cause of tourism promotion and the
subsequent global rebranding of Pakistan. He said the Summit would not only be
helpful in promoting tourism, it would also be instrumental in promoting
investment and economic activities in the country. He said that Landmark
Communications was the team behind organizing the leading annual international
travel- trade expo Pakistan Travel Mart in Karachi Expo Center and hoped that
in collaboration with ICCI, it would organize two-day summit successfully.