Tourism potential game changer for Pakistan and its economy: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Wednesday said Prime Minister Imran Khan was taking keen interest in the promotion of tourism as it was a potential game changer for Pakistan and its economy.

“Pakistan was a beautiful and peaceful country. Prime Minister Imran Khan has a special focus and taking keen interest for the promotion of tourism in the county as PM believed tourism was the sector which could be the potential game-changer of Pakistan and its economy,” he said while addressing the second Conference of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Economic Cooperation Organization (PAECO) Countries.

“We would like people to come to Pakistan and see our beautiful country, misunderstood by many, we have huge tourist’s resources at our disposal, we have remarkable history on our side, Pakistan was a peaceful and beautiful country,” he said.

He said it was responsibility of Pakistan embassies across the world to guide people and inform them about beautiful tourist destinations. Fawad said the government was working on an easy visa policy. “We need to work on our visa regime and need to work our security perceptions for the promotion of tourism in the country,” he added.

He said Switzerland was half of Pakistani Gilgit Baltistan but Switzerland was earning huge money from tourism.

“Turkey was a world leader in tourism, we can learn from Turkey and we must,” he added. The minister stressed the need for overcoming hurdles - saying, “We need to work on our visa regime, and need to work our security perceptions for the promotion of tourism in the country,” he added.

He said Pakistan had great demography; it has top mountains to visit. There is no example of diversity in weather right from K-2 mountains to Karachi seaport.

Fawad said Pakistan was so lucky, it has beaches, mountains, historical, religious and adventure tourism, the kind specter of tourism Pakistan offers no other country come too close to that.

The minister said there were numerous tourist destinations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and his constituency Jhelum, Yoga started from Tala Jogiyan, our region had been the passage of Baba Guru Nanak and Sikandar Azam. He said, the history of this region could be gauged from the ancient civilization here.

Fawad Chaudhry said PAECO conference would provide an opportunity to all the member countries how to promote tourism.

Pakistan has successfully combated the COVID-19 pandemic in the region and the ratio had decreased to less than four percent and Pakistan was a success story for the other countries. The minister said the corona situation in Indian was the worst.

“This the remarkable achievement of the government and the people of Pakistan, despite all ods, Pakistan economy was growing at nearby 4 percent, we have protected our poor to poor class through the Ahsaass program,” he added.

Fawad also asked the management of the PAECO conference to arrange a tour of the visiting delegates to see the beauty of the federal capital. “Islamabad is a beautiful city and Pakistan has so many tourist destinations to visit,” he added.