PIA flights to and from Moenjodaro will be resumed from next week for tourists. In this regard, the Ministry of Tourism held talks for resumption of flights to Moenjodaro with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) recently, which agreed to initially operate one flight per week and would later increase to two.
This was stated by Federal Minister for Tourism Gulab Jamal while talking to newsmen on the sidelines of Second Inter Provincial Tourism Ministers Conference held here on Saturday.
"The ministry has taken up the issue of excise duty on hotel industry of Sindh to provide relieve to them, and in today's meeting we discussed such an issue with the stakeholders," he said, adding that the government was committed to promote tourism and attract the attention of the international community towards Pakistan's rich archaeological and cultural heritage, and historical monuments.
Jamal said that the conference, being held in each province after every three months, was aimed at finalising the calendar of events through mutual consultation and indicating areas which could be focus for boosting tourism in Pakistan.
The government was providing infrastructure and strengthening the road network to cash out existing potential of tourism. The part of private sector in developing and running the tourism industry was being increased, he added.
He said that hotels/resorts were being currently operated by the ministry, which is not its responsibility. "It is the facilitator and the private sector should participate to fill the scarcity of government funds needed for the industry."
Besides, government would provide financial assistance to provinces as per their requirements, he said.
About other initiatives, he said the issue of relaxing taxes on hotels would be taken up with provincial governments. However, he deplored that basic tourism products, like cultural heritage and archaeological sites, were in a dilapidated condition.
During last fiscal year, the tourism earning stood at $186 million as "nothing compared with other countries" and said in this context ministry had not set any particular target for current year. "We are working to increase the output," he added.
He said that if there were no security issues, as the tourist expeditions in Northern Areas had increased from 63 to 80 expeditions of tourists groups.
The meeting is part of government's initiative to align recommendations of four provinces and Azad Kashmir for promoting tourism sector in their respective territories.
Representatives of tourism departments from all four provinces, Azad Kashmir and federal ministry attended the meeting and renewed pledge for discovering new avenues for investment in this sector.
Dr Gulab Jamal said that to promote tourism in the country, the PM has announced 2006 as 'Visit Pakistan' year. "Therefore, we have finalised a calendar of events to organise the various events round the year in the country on regular basis to attract tourists."
Among these will be the familiarisation trips for local and international media to various parts of the country like Moenjodaro, Harappa, Sikh shrines, Northern Areas etc. Other important festivals will include sea festival, horse and cattle show, Gandhara week celebration, world tourism Day Fair etc.
He said that an upward trend in tourism has already started in Pakistan with the number of tourists increasing to 0.6 million last year from 0.4 million.
Pakistan has recognised its regional and Far Eastern countries as target countries to attract tourists with special focus on China and Japan.
He pointed out that the number of tourists outflowing from China last year was 18.1 million whereas from Japan it was 17.2 million. "Therefore, if we become successful in attracting tourists from these countries we can generate a large amount of revenue," said the minister.
He said that these inter-provincial meetings would be held on regular basis after every three months in different provinces as Inter Provincial liaison is a must to promote the tourism in the country.
Punjab Minister for Tourism Asalm Iqbal, AJK Minister for Tourism Mansoorur Rebman, Advisor to Minister for Tourism Sindh Faisal Malik and Federal Secretary for Tourism Salim Gul Sheikh also attended the meeting along with provincial secretaries.