ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC), Syed Zulfi Bukhari on Monday said that Pakistan is launching tourism branding and would try to build 32 new 3 star hotels in next 2 years.
In an interview, he said the restructuring of PTDC was meant to shift its model from an operator to a policy maker and regulator.
“Tourism is one of the top priorities of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) government and it is part of the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to take every possible step to promote tourism in Pakistan. We will leave no stone unturned in this regard,” Zulfi said.
He said, “now we will not compare PTDC with private sectors but in coming years it would be playing a facilitating role for all provinces, besides emerging as a profitable entity”.
Bukhari said tourism is a highly profitable sector and government was giving opportunity to private enterprises to come forward and invest in this industry as we are committed to bring more foreign investment in Pakistan through promotion of tourism sector.
He also called upon the investors to invest in their religious places and Pakistani government would extend cooperation and support to them, adding that PTI government has also planned to revive its all Pakistani Shrines for the promotion of religious domestic tourism sector.
To attract strengthen religious tourism, the government was planning to develop a Buddhist trail. The trail will be developed by exploring the religious sites in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to attract religious tourists, particularly the followers of Buddhism across the world, he added.
The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) would also be revamped to help flourish sector and the inbound tourism will be the centre of focus as its promotion would attract a number of foreign tourists.
He said government is desirous to achieve one of its strategic goals to promote tourism and attract International and domestic tourists by providing them quality standards in hospitality sector, helping in more revenue generation to be spent for the development and enrichment of tourism industry.
PTDC’s motels will be handed over to the provinces along with a template for leasing them to the private sector under one window system, he added.
Talking about Turk based Tourism Forum , he explained Pakistan will host the Global Tourism Forum in 2021 and a tourism summit of D-8 countries in 2022, which is part of the federal government’s efforts to sensitize the international community about remarkable prospects of tourism in Pakistan.
