(TAN): Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said the country’s soft image can only be portrayed through the promotion of tourism, which would generate revenue and open up employment opportunities, Radio Pakistan reported.
At a meeting of the National Coordination Committee on Tourism in Islamabad, PM Khan said the government was focused on environmental conservation while managing tourist spots and promised help to provincial governments for development and promotion of tourism across the country.
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Special Assistant for Overseas Pakistanis Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari presented the Tourism Development Plan 2020-21 that includes seven theme parks and development of 60 new sites.
PM Khan has been trying to promote Pakistan as a tourism destination for a while now. At the World Government Summit in Dubai in February last year, the World Cup-winning cricketer-turned-politician said his country had everything to make it a great tourism destination.
“Pakistan has the best tourism potential. At the moment we hardly have any tourism compared with other countries,” Khan said, adding that while countries such as Malaysia and Turkey were raking in tourism dollars from their beaches, resorts and historical sites, Pakistan, despite having all those, hadn’t been able to exploit the full potential of the market.
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“Half of the world’s highest peaks are in Pakistan, we have about 1,000 km of coastline as well as historical monuments and ancient cities,” said Khan, adding that Pakistan also had the potential for religious tourism with the presence of sites considered holy by Muslims, Sikhs and Buddhists.
