Pakistan should advance in a changing world where risks from climate change and global warming have increased its vulnerability to unanticipated challenges brought on by natural and man-made calamities.

Aftab Ur Rehman Rana, the managing director of Pakistan Tourism Department Corporation (PTDC), said in his message on World Tourism Day, “the event always offers us a chance to come together and celebrate the achievements of our sector.”

He added that now is the ideal moment to reflect on the past and thoroughly evaluate what was done well and poorly. “There are always chances to learn from our errors and make improvements,” he said.

According to the managing director, Pakistan was among the countries facing the highest risk of disasters due to the impacts of global warming and climate change.

For the sake of the world and the people who live on it, he continued, "We now need to really consider tourism that is more sustainable, responsible, resilient, inclusive, and powerful."

"The latest glacier eruptions, flash floods, record rainfall, and elevated exposure to flooding are events that we have all witnessed. In addition to seriously harming people's lives and property across Pakistan, this has also severely degraded the nation's tourist infrastructure. Both the natural environments of tourist destinations and numerous cultural monuments have suffered significant erosion. As the probability of natural catastrophes is increasing with each passing year, this will likely become much more serious in the near future,” he noted.

He said, “All this allows us to step back for a while and rethink the new dimensions of tourism, which should not just focus on economic growth and more profitability, but also aim at inclusive growth and long-term benefits for citizens, especially the local communities that are already living on the edge.”

He said that the stakeholders in the tourism industry now need to prepare for future challenges, which require collaboration and a sense of interconnectedness between one another. “Let’s seize this opportunity to rethink how we develop tourism.”

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk