'Promoting tourism in Sri Lanka from Pakistan' an interview with Yasin Joyia - CEO Asian Media Group

Yasin Joyia has been associated with media and satellite industry for over 25 years. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Asian Media Group since 2006. Mr. Yasin completed his MBA from Adamson University, Philippines and started his career with National Television Marketing (NTM) right after.

BR Research recently met with Mr. Yasin at his office in Lahore. Following are the edited excerpts of the conversation that revolved around Mr. Yasin's recent venture and interesting association with Sri Lanka:

BR Research: You have had a long association with media and television. Walk us through your journey.

Yasin Joyia: I started my career as a marketing executive with NTM in 1991. That is when NTM was launched. I worked for seven years with NTM as General Manager Marketing for Punjab. At that time, I was heading 5 stations: Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan and Bahawalpur. I then moved to Young Asia Television - a leading satellite channel of Sri Lanka, where I worked as the Country Head for Pakistan for two years after which I moved to PTV World as a Regional General Manager.

Then after three years, I moved to World Call as the Chief Operating Officer. Later I worked as the COO at SUN TV, which was the first wireless cable network and pioneered introducing MMDS in the country. At the same time, I was also taking care of FM100 radio channel. It was in 2007-08 that I finally started my own business Asian Media Group with my partner. We have cable advertising, satellite channel distribution in Punjab and some trading business as well under the group.

BRR: Tell us about your current engagements with Sri Lanka.

YJ: Currently I am working with Sri Lanka government to promote tourism there. Earlier this year the Easter tragedy in Colombo left over 380 people dead, and 2.5 million people directly and indirectly involved in tourism business have been jobless because the tourists left the country. Due to my long association with Sri Lanka in the past, I really wanted to do something for my Sri Lankan friends. I started my page Pak Sri Lanka Business Forum and started promoting Sri Lanka tourism. I sent emails to 128 embassies in Islamabad asking them to push their governments to relax travel advisory for Sri Lanka because of the 2.5 million lost jobs. I put in a lot of effort in what was also the tagline of our page: Rebuild Sri Lanka.

We received very positive response, and one day I received calls from His Excellency, Noordeen Mohamed Shaheid - High Commissioner from Sri Lanka to Pakistan; their Minister Tourism - John Amaratunga, and Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority - Mr. Kishu Gomes; President Tourism Chambers Colombo; and from many high commissioners from all over the world for the appreciation of my efforts to promote Sri Lankan tourism sitting in Lahore.

This motivated me to launch the first ever in Pakistan -Sri Lanka relationship history a tourist information centre in Lahore. Plus, every Saturday we invite students and travel enthusiasts for Hi-Tea and a documentary on Sri Lanka tourism.

I also have this news from H.E. Noordeen Shaheid that Pakistan's government has initiated 200 scholarships for Sri Lankan students to Pakistani Universities. We have started promoting these scholarships on our page, and the response has been heartwarming - every day we received 10-15 emails from Sri Lankan students. We are facilitating their admissions here in Pakistani universities.

I believe that these scholarships will go a long way in strengthening ties between the two countries. Moreover, they will also improve our country's image in terms of tourism, safety and quality higher education. I have also suggested and the Sri Lankan Tourism Board is sponsoring 20 people from journalism and media industry from Pakistan for a tourism conference in Colombo in December this year. Another one of my initiatives as the Chairman Pak-Sri Lanka Business Forum is that we are also organizing a tourism conference here in Lahore.

BRR: Tell us about this conference in Lahore.

YJ: This conference is primarily focused on tourism in Colombo, and Sri Lanka Airlines is collaborating with us. The management was here a few weeks ago and we have chalked out a plan with them. The main focus of the conference is tourism and business in Sri Lanka and coming up with good packages for local tour operators. For the next level, we are trying to set up a B2B meeting Sri Lanka's and Pakistan's tourist agencies, which will help coming up with packages for both countries and some sort of exchange programs between the two.

BRR: What are your suggestions for promoting tourism in Pakistan?

YJ: If I am given the task of promoting tourism in Pakistan, I can assure you that I can do wonders not only because of my experience of promoting tourism in Sri Lanka, but also because I have travelled to over 40 countries around the world and multiple times.

First impression is the last impression at least in tourism. Tourists should feel that they are welcome on arrival. There should be maps of the city attractions handed to them after the immigration process to facilitate them. Tourist hubs in cities should be identified based on its marketability, access, international/local attraction etc. and then marketed like the rest of the world. This should be followed by inviting private sector and subletting various segments. Authorized tour operators should be dealing with the tourists. Infrastructure and public facilities should be made tourist friendly.

However, it is not just about the infrastructure development; you have to go beyond. Airlines have to contribute and offer attractive packages to the tourists.

There should be a two-year course in the curriculum on tourist guide. Softer skills like communication and mannerism should be taught and highlighted to all departments linked to tourism be it the car rentals or hotels etc. There are three forms of tourism: local, international and religious. We should also look into religious tourism as it is one segment that is picking up in the rest of the world as well. I wish we can do something for Pakistan tourism as well like we are doing for Sri Lankan tourism.

BRR: You are working as a facilitator of tourism in Sri Lanka. How many facilitators does Pakistan have in the world?

YJ: We don't, and our commercial attaches are not working like they should be. They not only have to promote trade but also tourism. Recently, the government of Pakistan has taken an initiative of sending commercial attaches not from just the commerce group but also other groups like management etc. But I still think that they won't be able to deliver unless private sector is also involved in the task. Plus, they should have short term and long term numeric targets that should make them accountable. This should be followed by quarterly report to the Prime Minister to hold these commercial attaches accountable. They should be reprimanded or incentivized according to their performance on the goals set for them. These targets should be backed with actual research and study of the sector be it for tourism or trade.

BRR: Sri Lanka's tourism has a potential of $4.5 billion in 2020. Can you put a number to the potential of tourism in Pakistan?

YJ: I would say around $8-9 billion initially because you have to build the whole infrastructure. Then you need to make documentaries and project to the international community in their local languages as well. You need a complete mechanism.

BRR: Coming back to Sri Lanka, what is the main purpose of the tourist conference in December this year?

YJ: This is an initiative taken for the first time by someone in Pakistan. The key purpose is to give more awareness. Sri Lanka has 60 tourist sites that the government of Sri Lanka promotes. So what we are doing is getting knowledge of all these top 60 sites and making a short documentary for our participants and local tour operators at the conference, which will also include all the facilities available there, Sri Lankan Airlines' support, tourist packages.

We will also make a brochure and a catalogue from Pak-Sri Lanka platform and distribute these to all the travel agencies, tour operators and even some universities. And once this group returns, we will also be taking their views and feedback at the airport, which will be promoted in the local media so that the general public can also benefit from their experience and use the information while planning their next travel.