Faiza Tehseen

Pakistan can fully tap its tourism potential by re-establishing the federal tourism ministry. This was stated by Aftabur Rehman Rana, Managing Director of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PMDC). Talking to WealthPK, he said that Pakistan had a fully-fledged tourism ministry, but it was dissolved under the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

He emphasised that a centralised tourism system was necessary to collaborate with all the relevant departments and bodies in the provinces for promotion of the tourism industry. He said that a strong national-level organisation was critical to look after the affairs of the tourism sector. “A lot of international promotion and marketing is required concerning the facilities provided to the tourists, including their lodging, ease of obtaining visas, and security. Those jobs could best be done by a federal entity.”

Rana said though PTDC was a federal-level body and had representation of the provincial tourism secretaries on its board of directors, its role needed to be further expanded to make the tourism industry an engine of the national economic growth. Speaking to WealthPK about the importance of re-establishing the tourism ministry, Nazir Sabir, a noted mountaineer, said, “The 18th Amendment has taken away the tourism ministry, making the subject itself an orphan. Now, there is no proper official body at the government level responsible for framing a tourism policy.”

He said that the provincial tourism departments hardly mattered and they had a number of challenges to address. “A centralised body in the form of a tourism ministry is compulsory to be established in the country to make decisions and ensure their implementation to boost the tourism sector.” “Maybe we have a set of wonderful policies concerning documentation and other necessary facilities for both inbound and outbound tourists, but without a centralised body, such policies cannot be implemented uniformly.”    He said policymakers in Pakistan should consider restoring the federal ministry of tourism to put the sector on a sustainable footing, generating livelihood sources for millions of people and building Pakistan’s soft image abroad.

Credit: INP-WealthPk