KARACHI: The National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) has appealed to the federal and provincial governments to reopen tourist resorts all over the country after adopting all the coronavirus-related safety precautions.
NFEH President Naeem Qureshi said that mass unemployment had been caused due to the closure of the tourist resorts in the country for past six months. He said that the closure of the tourist attractions in the Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir, and other provinces had rendered jobless over 1.2 million people associated with the hospitality, recreational and allied industries.
Qureshi, who also is the convener of the FPCCI's Standing Committee on Environment, said that the people whose livelihoods depended upon the tourism industry had been facing serious economic hardships for the past six months as many of them had no means at all to feed their families.
He said that very limited time was left before the annual tourist season of the country had come to an end with start of the winter. He said that the situation would further worsen if no decision was taken in this regard at the earliest.
He lamented the situation that the elites and influential people had easy access to tourist spots in the hilly areas in the country's North but the same recreational areas were closed to the general public.
NFEH president said that an announcement of Prime Minister Imran Khan to reopen these tourist attractions in the upcountry two months back was yet to be implemented. He said that permission should be granted to all the restaurants, hotels, motels, guest houses, and other facilities of the tourism industry to reopen at the earliest after adopting all the safety precautions.
The provincial governments should also announce to reopen tourist areas in their respective jurisdiction without any further delay. This is imperative because there has been a marked decline in the Covid-19 infection rate in the country for past several days, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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