NWFP Minister for Tourism and Culture, Hussain Ahmad Kanju said on Saturday that the under construction Malakand-Swat road has become major hurdle in the promotion of tourism and access of tourists to attractive places of Dir and scenic valley Swat of the Malakand Division.
Talking to Business Recorder, he said that road linking Swat with other parts of the country was under construction since last few years. Some portions of the road were with federal government agency, National Highway Authority (NHA) and some with Frontier Highway Authority (FHA).
He urged on both federal as well as provincial government to expedite the ongoing construction work on road concerned and complete the work before the next tourists' season of the area.
He said that due to its specific cold weather and natural beautiful scenes Swat, Dir, Chitral, Galiyats, Kaghan and Naran have special attraction for the domestic tourists and abundance of the old relics of Gandhara civilisation are special attractions for tourists from Japan, Korea and China, who came their to quench their spiritual thirst.
Kanju said that the joint efforts of government and other stakeholders including tour operators, hoteliers association and transporters could help becoming the province a hub of foreign and local tourists. He said that after textile, tourism is the second largest industry of the world while in Pakistan in general and NWFP in particular it is the largest industry of the country.
Regarding the observance of 2007 as Visit Pakistan Year, he said 10 events would be held in the province beginning from Skiing tournament at Malam Jabba, district Swat and would be culminated with a Khyber to Karachi Safari Train journey by the end of the year.
The government, he said would also send delegations to important countries of the tourism sector to seek guidance from their experience and bring back tips for the promotion of the sector in our own country. Furthermore, he said that visa rules have been relaxed for tourists from 24 different countries to enable tourists of those countries to avail the chance of visiting Pakistan and promote the tourism related assets of our country.
The provincial minister said that the purpose of the observance of Visit Pakistan Year was the promotion of the peaceful and positive image of the country damaged in the name of extremism and activities of al Qaeda.
"The observance of the year would help improve the image and would present it in a posture of paradise for foreign tourists," reiterated the provincial minister for tourism and culture. He said that NWFP provides peaceful environment not only to domestic, but also for foreign tourists, saying that in the history of Pakistan none of the foreign tourist had faced security problem.
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