PESHAWAR: Tourism industry of Frontier province suffered a loss worth $400 million since the launch of war on terror, said NWFP Tourism Minister Syed Aqil Shah here on Sunday.
‘Militancy had affected the tourism the most and we have suffered a loss of $50 million annually,’ the minister said while speaking at a function held in connection with World Tourism Day.
Sarhad Tourism Corporation organised the gathering where besides others tour specialists Fidaullah Sehrai, Zahoor Durrani, STC former managing director Ghaffar Mohmand and STC General Manager Mushtaq Ahmad Khan were also present.
The minister said that provincial government was devising a master plan for the development of tourism in the province. He stressed upon the international community and federal government to fully concentrate and cooperate with the provincial government in reviving tourism industry in NWFP, which had the potential of overcoming the losses faced by the province due to militancy.
Mr Shah said that tourists stopped visiting scenic resorts in the province when billboards carrying pictures of women were smashed during the government of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in NWFP.
‘The wave of insurgency and militancy in Malakand division and other parts of the province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas proved to be the last nail in the coffin of tourism industry in NWFP,’ the minister said.
He said that chairlifts would be installed from Naran to Saiful Maluk Lake while 2-megawatt hydel power stations would be also set up at Saiful Maluk. He said under a special package, people of Japan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and other countries would be given a chance to visit province.
A state of the art Lok Versa Centre was being established at Gorgatri, while a separate directorate had been established in the province which would become functional from October 15 this year, the minister said.
Mr Shah said that a two-day cultural conference would be held in Peshawar at the end of October while 2,500 years celebrations of Peshawar, the oldest living city, would be made in December. He pledged to launch and complete at least two tourism projects in his tenure in the province.
He said that about 70 per cent of tourist sites in the country were located in NWFP and it was the need of the hour to concentrate on development of those sites so that both local and international tourists could be attracted.
‘Pakistan has matchless tourist resorts but due to extremism and militancy, tourists are not visiting the country,’ he added.
The minister urged the media to portray soft image of the country and apprise the world about the hospitality, brotherhood and friendly behaviour of Pakistanis.
Other speakers urged the world as well as Pakistani leadership to spend most of the aid on the rehabilitation, development work as well as promotion of tourism in NWFP.
No comments:
Post a Comment