ABBOTTABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) has directed all the hotels and guest houses to provide complete details of visitors from May 1 to July 25, 2019, including their complete particulars, full addresses and contact numbers, days spent and total payments made by them.
The notice issued to the hotels warned that failure to comply with may entail penal consequences under the relevant laws. One of the recipients of the notice, while talking to media, said that this is the last nail in the coffin of the dying tourism industry.
“Due to adverse economic condition, the numbers of inland tourists have dropped as compared to the previous year and the hotel industry of Hazara, already in crisis, will further sink and billions of rupees investment of the business community will go waste,” he said. He added that the people would stop staying at hotels for nights because many would not like to share the details of their families and other such matters. “Prime Minister Imran should stop propaganda about the flourishing of the tourism sector in the country and avoid giving examples of Turkey or Hong Kong,” he added.
A hotel owner, requesting anonymity due to fear of action from KPRA, said that during the last two months, they did not earn for their families but earned revenue enough to pay taxes. He demanded provincial minister for tourism and chief minister to stop KPRA from implementing such strict rules in Hazara division.
