TCKP makes ambitious plans for attracting tourists

PESHAWAR: The Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP) has planned a number of events for the upcoming season to lure more domestic and international tourists to the province, said an official communiqué on Wednesday.
The first event of the many projects is arranging one-day excursion through Abaseen safari train from Peshawar to Attock Khurd and the tourists visit to the historic King Akbar Fort located on the bank of mighty River Indus on April 11.
It will be followed by a two-day Khanpur festival on April 17-18 wherein water sports, traditional foods, folklore and pop music, exhibition of cultural and heritage items and others will be the major features of the event.
The TCKP is also making special arrangements for holding Kalash and Shandur festivals in May and June, respectively.This time, the Shandur festival has been brought forward from the routine schedule and is being organized in the first week of June due to Ramazan.
The national and international tourists have also another good news, as the corporation is soon launching minibus service from the historical Peshawar city to the scenic Naran valley.Besides these, the TCKP is making efforts for the image building of the province and people, marketing of tourism, investment road show events, infrastructure projects and official launching of web portal.
In addition to these events, the TCKP has also planned to promote religious, eco-friendly and adventurous tourism in the province.A religious tourism resort will be established at the historic Takht Bhai archaeological ruins, a zoological and botanical garden with recreational water sports facilities at Kheshgi village in Nowshera district, chairlift project from Naran to Saiful Maluk Lake, Adventure Theme Park at Nathiagali, tourist resort at historic Hund village on Indus River, upgradation of chairlift resort at tourist spot in Ayubia and outsourcing of government resthouses.
The policy envisions developing an internationally competitive tourism sector to fully realise its diverse potentials, making tourism a leading economic sector for the province through public-private partnership, said TCKP Managing Director Mushtaq Ahmad Khan.
He said the vision would be realized through an ambitious agenda for private sector-driven tourism development in the province to boost economic growth The official said that according to the Annual Development Programme 2014-15 no amount of the corporation has lapsed, adding almost all benchmarks had been achieved.
These benchmarks included nine ongoing schemes and three new schemes: Establishment of an artisan village at Gor Khatri which has been completed and is being inaugurated this month.
While working is in process for the water sports tourist facilitation at Khanpur, capacity building of Tourist Services Wing, Development and Restoration of properties transferred to TCKP which will be further leased through Public Private Partnership and establishment of tourists facilitation centres in Chitral, Galiyat, Naran, Kaghan and Kohistan.
The new schemes of year 2014-15 are establishment of picnic spots at Malam Jabba, feasibility study of development of Sum Elahi Mung Mansehra as a tourist resort and the establishment of Tourist Information Centres (TICs) in other cities of the country to facilitate tourists. The corporation has already established two new TICs at Lahore and Karachi.
Giving details, Mushtaq Ahmad said that Rs30 million were allocated in the ADP 2014-15 for holding traditional events that portrayed the local, cultural and traditional galas.
The corporation organised Khanpur Festival, Gor Khatri Arts & Craft Festival, Jashn-e-Hazara at Haripur, Shandur Polo Festival and Broghul Festival.