"Pakistan needs to market itself as a tourist destination as it is endowed with beautiful landscapes, sceneries, historical heritage and other attractive places for international tourists," Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Asia Travel Association Mario Hardy told the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Friday.
Those also speaking were LCCI Vice President Nasir Saeed, Managing Director of the Tourism Development Corporation of the Punjab Ahmer Malik and Pacific Asia Travel Association Chairman Akbar Shareef. Chief Executive Officer Hardy told his small audience, "Pakistan's image is not as bad as being portrayed globally and it should highlight its soft image through its missions abroad and the media."
He then talked about his association's history back in 1951 that has provided aligned advocacy, insightful research and innovative events to its member organisations, comprising 97 governments, state and city tourism bodies, 27 international airlines, airports and cruise lines, 63 educational institutions and hundreds of travel industry companies in Asia Pacific and beyond.
Managing Director Malik claimed Pakistan was making a gradual progress in the tourism sector and various measures had been taken in a short span of time and that Pakistani mission abroad were doing well to attract foreign visitors to Pakistan. He also revealed about a regional tourism conference to be held in Lahore soon that would also help highlight the tourism potential of Pakistan. Vice President Saeed then talked about the tourism industry having the potential to turn Pakistan into a hub of economic activities as a total contribution of the travel and tourism industry in the global economy which was more than $7.58 trillion.