Government to support PTDC on tourism promotion

Islamabad :Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) managing director addressed the participants of senior management course organised by the National Institute of Management.
Speaking on the occasion, Chaudhry Ghafoor Khan said that in the past, there was no work on the promotion of tourism in Pakistan because it has been a neglected sector. But the present government is ready to support PTDC in this valuable sector. In this context there is a strong need for cooperation between relevant federal and provincial government departments. Tourism is the only sector after Foreign Affairs that play an important role in setting up brotherhood between the nations and to coordinate the masses. This sector creates new innovation in culture and promotes brotherhood and morality.
He said that Pakistan is the only country in the world, where tourism opportunities are present for need of every tourist, but due to lack of work in this sector, tourists’ flow is limited. Another important reason is the negative propaganda of Western media and travel advisors, due to which foreign tourists are afraid to come to Pakistan while the actual is in contrast to it. Recently, New Zealand’s International Olympics Champion Kayaker Mike Dawson has made a documentary on the 15-day tour in Pakistan and said that negative stories about security in Pakistan are just lies and Pakistan is a safe and secure country for tourism.
He said that we are in process of developing a comprehensive strategy for the promotion of tourism in the country, for which the PTDC held a round table meeting this month, where stakeholders, tourist figures, Universities’ professors and tour operators presented their valuable recommendations for this strategy. In the light of these recommendations, Tourism Promotion Strategy is being developed. The conference of UN World Tourism Organization will be held in Islamabad in January 2018, which will help us eliminate the negative propaganda against Pakistan.
The National Institute of Management Peshawar is organizing 22nd senior management courses from September 25, 2017 to 12 January 2018, in which officers of the federal and provincial governments and autonomous bodies who are promoted from BS-19 to BS-20 are participating.