‘Evolve tourism policy with focus on religious sites’

LAHORE: There is a need to evolve a comprehensive tourism policy specifically focusing on religious tourism to promote tourism in Pakistan.

The local media should portray a positive image of the country at the international level. These views were expressed by the discussants in Jang Economic Session held on “What Steps are Required for the Promotion of Tourism.” The panelists were Dr Ehsan Malik, Aneela Saleem, Qaisra Sheikh, Mehmood Ahmed, Qamar-uz-Zaman and Asim Raza. The event was hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.

Dr Ehsan Malik said that if the natural tourism sites of Pakistan could be facilitated, the country might earn billions of dollars annually besides portrayal of soft image of the country to the world as terrorism had adversely affected it.

He suggested promotion of religious tourism as holy places of Hinduism and Sikh religions were located in Pakistan where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims could visit every year. He believed that one time investment in religious places and protection of them could benefits a lot to the country.

Aneela Saleem said that tourism was an industry which could play an active role in economic betterment while the country had ample capacity to promote every type of tourism ranging from historical sites to natural sites, religious paces and the sea.

There is only need to provide facilities to the locations and the people working in the sector. She said the wave of change was underway in the country, and the tourism sector should also be used to increase the GDP of Pakistan.

She called for incentives for the local and foreign investors in the tourism sector. Qaisra Sheikh said that Pakistan did not have any tourism policy while globally the sector was given focus to get economic advantages. She hoped that the government would focus the sector to make it profitable by evolving better strategy.

She called for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-like tax free policy in Punjab for tourism promotion, besides giving tax rebates to tour operators and improving the tourism sites. She asked for training women in the tourism sector for better results.

Mehmood Ahmed said Pakistani tourism sites were one of the best ones in the world but needed proper hotels and transportation facilities were required besides global marketing to get desirable results.

He said the media could play an important role in promotion of tourism as it could create positive image of Pakistan in the world by showing peace in the country. He said the sunset and sunrise scenes at Gawadr had their own beauty so the tourism sector should be focused.

Qamar-uz-Zaman said that religious tourism promotion was important factor for the promotion of tourism in Pakistan as hundreds of Sikh pilgrims annually visited Pakistan for their holy places. He called for provision of infrastructure facilities for them to gain economic benefits. He believed that security was no more Pakistan’s concern so there was a need to promote tourism sites for round the year tourism.

Asim Raza said there was need to eliminate the negative image of Pakistan in the world with regard to terrorism. The government should run a campaign to create peaceful image of Pakistan, he added. He said Pakistanis were unaware of the tourism sites. He said tourism was at its peak in the 70s while the situation had completely changed now.