Faiza Tehseen

Pakistan is in dire need of enhancing its annual tourist footfall from D-8 countries by showcasing archaeological, religious, adventure and eco-tourism, Mukhtar Ali, Manager of Tourist Facilitation Centres of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC), told WealthPK. Mukhtar said proper presentation of a vast variety of tourism products in D-8 countries can not only open a window of work opportunities and sustainable livelihood for thousands of people but also bring a handsome revenue to the state wallets. According to the PTDC data, as shown in the table below, during 2019-2021, Pakistan hosted 2,04,039 tourists from D-8 countries.

According to Mukhtar, as a D-8 member, Pakistan hosted the third two-day D-8 ministerial meeting in Bhurban on August 4 this year. The meeting adopted the Islamabad Declaration on Tourism Cooperation 2023 that delineates the member states’ commitments and policy guides to implement the D-8 Comprehensive Strategy on Tourism and Crescent Moon Initiative. “Pakistan should have its tourism showcasing outlets in all prominent cities of D-8 member countries.

The more they know about the tourist destinations of Pakistan, the more interest they will show in visiting the country. Other than destination orientation, we should emphasize boosting the hospitality sector and infrastructure,” Mukhtar opined. Crescent Moon Initiative is actually an innovative and uniform course to make tourism the most productive sector of D-8 member countries.

 Here are the possible projects and programmes that would be part of the Crescent Moon initiative.

 1. Digitalization of the D-8 tourism sector would be a step forward towards establishing a joint digital marketing platform to showcase and market their destinations and packages in D-8 countries and the rest of the world;

 2. Organizing joint cultural events, road tours and producing travel documentaries, as they would be significantly helpful for all the member states;

 3. Creating D-8 designated airport in each member state in order to facilitate travels and tourism by the citizens of D-8 member states and simultaneously promote people-to-people and business-to-business contacts;

 4. Enhancing D-8 tourism cooperation at the international tourism fairs in order to continuously promote tourism in member states as well as organize D-8 travel fairs and exhibitions among the D-8 member states;

 5. Promoting the role of SMEs in tourism cooperation, feasibility of establishing tourism house, eco-tourism initiatives and potentials, health tourism, airline synergy and frequent flights, adventure and city tourism, pilgrimage tourism, etc.;

 6. Enhancing tourism joint actions on the areas of common interest among member states based on D-8 Declaration and D-8 road map including common marketing and packaging, shared tourism consortium, promotional facilities, etc.;

 7. Establishing a Tourism Fund within D-8 in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank and other national and international banks and funds in order to support tourism infrastructural development and businesses among member states;

 8. Exchanging experiences on establishing Tourism Satellite Accounts in the D-8 member states in order to publish D-8 yearly tourism report by the tourism department of the Secretariat;Encouraging member states to develop and broadcast promotional cultural/tourism television programmes among the D-8 countries;

 9. Establishing a D-8 Tourism House in each country; and Establishing a working group on tourism in order to prepare a five-year action plan; adopt and implement the UNWTO Tourism Code of Ethics and other instruments envisaged in the present declaration based on core D-8 documents; and submit them to the meeting of the commissioners/ministers for consideration and endorsement.

Credit: INP-WealthPk