LAHORE: Tourism, being the priority sector, under recent SME Policy, has emerged as a high-potential area at par with e-commerce business in SMEDA’s action plan to spur growth of SMEs in the country. It was stated by the SMEDA CEO Hashim Raza while addressing an awareness meeting on ‘Festival of North’ to be held in Passu (Gilgit Baltistan) for promotion of tourism-based SMEs.

He told that the Festival of North was being opened from October 23 as a four-day event in collaboration with Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC). He said in the wake of recent floods and drop in tourist activity, SMEDA, PTDC and Gilgit Baltistan govt, had joined hands to support small businesses of upper Hunza through tourism promotion.

The festivities will be spread across various towns across Gojal valley, he said adding that the event titled as ‘Festival of the North’ would be continued as an annual episode by focusing on improvement and diversification of the products and services of the local SMEs.

CEO SMEDA said that Tourism is closely linked with SMEs in hospitality services, tour guides, sports activities and products like souvenirs, eatables and handicrafts. But, they have not been able to take full advantage of the growing tourism in Pakistan due to the limited range of products and services, which also lack in product development, diversification, categories, packaging, visibility and marketing. Though services have been improved but are still not at par with world standards.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022