Tourism and Hoteling Industry in Pakistan: Challenges and Way Forward

[Music] on behalf of the iqbal institute of policy studies i welcome you to our webinar titled tourism and hotelling industry in pakistan challenges and way forward to begin with i would like to say a few words about the institute and what it represents it is an independent research institute with the mission to generate track and advocate public policies towards the achievement of sustainable development in pakistan it is the first think tank in the country with a sharp focus on research on all dimensions of the real estate sector in addition to taking on projects for policy advocacy ips has embarked upon the concept of swift research wherein it undertakes tank around research and compiles a series of reports for policy and decision makers attention coming to our topic tourism is recognized as one of the key sectors of development in all countries and a major source of income jobs and wealth creation it also plays a wider role in promoting the image and international perception of a country and is a key driver of economic growth consistent with the sustainable developmental goals tourism and hospitality industry of pakistan has experienced a strong growth in recent years a trend which is expected to continue growth within the industry has been encouraged by economic prosperity in urban areas and real estate development pakistan with its rich natural and cultural resources has the potential to become one of the world's leading tourist destinations the south asian country has already topped several international travel lists and according to the world travel and tourism council pakistan's tourism sector can become a 40 billion dollar industry within a decade however challenges in the social and services sector policy design safety and security tourism infrastructure and lack of an enabling environment have led to a weak competitive position for pakistan therefore pakistan must develop intelligent policies and seek their effective implementation to revitalize its tourism and hospitality sector we are fortunate to have eminent panelists from diverse backgrounds who are considered specialists in their respective professions our first panelist is mr aftabu rahman rana he has more than 35 years of experience in the tourism industry and is currently serving as the managing director of ptdc he is also the founder of sustainable tourism movement in pakistan and the fellow of leadership for environment and development previously he has served as the director general of invention foundation pakistan as the senior tourism promotion officer at tdce he has also worked with world bank usaid and asian development bank as tourism development consultant he is also the winner of a number of international and national awards in the field of tourism he will speak on the topic potential and challenges of tourism industry in pakistan we also have with us mr ishad the anjum is the director of operations at ferletti hotels he has more than 40 years of experience in the hotel management ranging from bhuti to full service hotels he is known for his hospitality and leadership skills as he has been an integral part of the harshu group and had the honor of shaping the success stories of per continental hotels and resorts while serving at the post of regional vice president operations north and then director operations pakistan he will speak on the topic importance of hotels in promotion of tourism we also have with us ms mumnar isvan who is the head of leasing and brands at imarat group pakistan's largest commercial residential and hospitality conglomerate she is a certified marketing and data science professional skilled in digital and analytics platforms she has worked as a consultant for digital transformation for prime minister of pakistan ministry of overseas pakistanis and human resource development national tourism board and ptdc her experience in the public and private sector makes her an expert in marketing business development and client management she will speak on the topic role of real estate development and promotion of tourism finally we have with us mr dr shujaat ali who is a retired civil servant and has held many important appointments including special secretary of finance and secondary industries commerce and investments he has also served as a board member of several prestigious public and private companies like nbp ubl saudi park real estate company he will speak on the topic importance of urban planning in effective governance we also have with us retired muhammad harun aslam who is a veteran with more than 40 years of experience in the armed forces of pakistan and more than eight years of experience in the private sector he is the president of its advisory board and i welcome you search is an honor for us to host you as regards with the conduct of the webinar each participant will speak on a particular topic for 20 minutes 15 to 20 minutes after the round of speech by all participants we will have a general discussion and q and a session now i would like to request lieutenant general harlan aslam to open the webinar with his introductory remarks uh thank you very much lady and gentlemen and all the listeners who are watching us thank you very much for your time panelists it is an eminent uh group of panelists and i'm sure that we will be able to bring out certain recommendations finally conclusions and recommendations so that we badly need to you know give a boost to our uh tourism industry um a lot is being done but a lot needs to be done yes english this is just the few tips i would like to give please commence umar thank you thank you i would like to request mister after the stage thank you thank you mr omar for this detailed introduction and uh thank you very much uh jenna haroon for inviting me in this very important webinar and i hope in today's discussion we will find out some good recommendations which will be useful for the promotion of tourism sector and especially the hospitality sector i have prepared a presentation which i would like to share on my screen and accordingly i'll move on and later on i can have a question on answers as well um here we go i hope you can see my screen properly yes sir it's very clear okay so uh as the topic uh i'll be talking about the potential of tourism in pakistan as well as some challenges and uh very particularly i will talk about a very specific challenge which is hampering the tourism in pakistan right now because of the mushroom growth taking place all over uh at various locations and if you look at this uh map of pakistan which is the tourist destination map you will understand that pakistan is one of those countries in the world which are blessed with diverse inventory of tourism attraction and this is based basically on the unique endowment of natural landscape feature its biodiversity and rich cultural heritage and almost all the provincial areas have something unique in their own territories which could become a huge tourist attraction to invite tourists from all around the world and from the domestic market as well if we look at the landscape aspect of pakistan pakistan's northern part is a place where we have great mountain ranges meeting together and this is the place where we have five peaks over 8 000 meter and more than 100 peaks over 7000 meter and this kind of mountain grandeur is not available anywhere else on the earth and pakistan is unique in that not only that we also have one of the longest glaciers in pakistan not rather one of their five thousand glaciers all over in the northern territories and all this glaciated region which is unique out of the polish regions in the world is a great place for adventure tourism which include mountaining trekking uh skiing river rafting rock climbing ice climbing and various other new extreme adventure sports so lots of potential available in our mountain areas for the promotion of adventure tourism when we descend down from the high mountains they are very interesting landscape of beautiful valleys along the karakoram mountains like this and when we travel on karakoram highway descending down from the chinese border at punjab we reach to the places which are the lower himalayas and the hindu question uh mountains and deer costa in savate and in valley where there's a lush green meadows and pastures and thick forest and the number of interesting and beautiful lakes which could be developed as tourist resorts and only few of these lakes are still accessible and many lakes are only accessible by foot and if we look at the history side we can say pakistan is unique in terms of the place which has more or less nine thousand years of human history starting from mexico while the mega is one of the earliest farming settlement in southeast asia and it's located in the blojossan province and then we have monjodoro which has a history of about 5000 years of humankind and most developed civilization of its time uh remains uh are there right now to explore by the tourists the other places of hindu religion available almost all over the country in different provinces and they have their own value in terms of sacred sites for hindu religion as well as for heritage tourism promotion and one of the unique aspect is the gandhara area which is uh uh of from the peshawar to the lower swath area and touching on this side up to the tax line even down this place is basically the place from where the mahayana buddhism originated which is these days mostly practiced in china in korea and japan and many other forestry countries so they have millions of buddhist mahayana buddhist followers who who could be easily attracted to visit this kandhara region in pakistan in terms of urban tourism pakistan is some of the most beautiful cities in the world like peshawar is considered one of the oldest living city in south asia and this is its own culture and beauty and you know lots of different attractions in terms of its living you know culture and history available with us punjab uh the lahore city is basically hub of mobile era heritage sites also they are set sites of british taj and many other later dynasties it could become a kind of a heart of culture tourism in pakistan with proper planning and development policy making this is also the region from where the sikh religion originated and their very nice intact gurudwavara is available to promote sikh heritage and religious tourism in pakistan the sin is famous as the land of sufis and shades has various sites of historical and cultural aspect as well as a number of sharings of sufficients available in this area and in between there's a desert of cholestan which has its own culture its beauty and its uh you know living aspect of the people and thirty people which is very very attractive for the western tourist as well descending down towards south uh there's a huge macaron coast more than 750 kilometers long which has the rocky terrain on one side and beautiful golden sandy beaches on other side so great potential available for the promotion of marine tourism in pakistan which is almost unexplored so far the most important aspect of pakistan tourism is this living culture the more than 74 languages are spoken in pakistan and when you are traveling in pakistan from north to south or south to south to north you can find that every 70 to 80 kilometers is a change of culture there's a change of faces there's a change of cuisine so great diversity of cultural aspect is available for tourists to explore in this country and one of these living culture we have ancient people of kalasha who live in three valleys uh in the chitral district and they are one of the oldest indigenous people who are still following their uh thousands of years old religion and traditions and customs as pakistan is unique in landscape diversity so it is unique in its eco regions as well we have nine eco region from alpine zone at the top to the marine zone of the arabian sea so there's a great diversity of wildlife available to to promote eco-tourism and to promote wildlife based tourism as most of the african countries are doing these things the pakistani food and cuisine is so rich and available in abundance everywhere people love to have you know the great variety of food available all around in pakistan uh same as the case for the handicrafts is a very very rich country where in every town in city and village people are producing very attractive and colorful handicrafts which people buy especially the tourists when they go back they take these products as souvenirs for their family and their friends uh although uh the kicket is a game of passion for pakistan but we also play lots of other traditional games like polo the wrestling the tan pegging the camel dancing and the bull race and many other so they are all played in its most regional form and they are also kind of a tourist attraction and one of the highest polo field is available at the border of kp and gilgit and every year in july there's a big festival where thousands of people come to watch the game of poland's most regional form which is played at shandu tournament capital city of islamabad has its own charm it's a modern capital one of the most beautiful capitals and it's a great gateway for tourism to all over pakistan and based on all this uh tourism which we have in pakistan i've just shown you a glimpse of that we cannot just promote one or two kind of tourism in pakistan rather we have opportunity to promote various segments like the recreation the adventure the culture the religious tourism the sports the eco-tourism wellness and health tourism education and conferences agri-tourism shopping tourism business youth and many many more so it's a very very diverse products available with us which can be promoted based on the rich potential we have over the years the tourism is growing quite rapidly in pakistan in 2014 we had almost 1.5 million tourists traveling within country in one year which has now already crossed the figure of 6.6 million in 2018. although the largest portion of this tourist is the pakistani domestic market which is almost 96 percent and only four percent is the foreign tourist market which so far we have so we need to do quite a lot of effort to develop more foreign tourism in pakistan if we look at the overall impact of this tourism so far we have pakistan tourism industry is contributing something about 5.9 percent in the total gdp of pakistan economy and more or less 2 285 billion rupees annually it's contributing in the revenue of the country the more than 3.9

million people who are involved in tourism sector in terms of jobs a half of this is the direct and half of this is almost indirect and we are making something about 852 million us dollar from foreign tourism in pakistan so although pakistan tourism industry is not as developed as in many other countries but still it's handsomely contributing in the national economy in the employment creation and also in foreign exchange earning for the country recently the government has taken various steps to develop tourism on model 9 and the government in last three years have done quite a remarkable project in pakistan in terms of developing national tourism coordination board restructuring pddc introducing e-visa 491 countries developing a national tourism strategy for 10 years introducing integrated tourism plan for new destinations in various provinces tourism brand which is just ready to be launched to promote pakistan abroad as a tourist destination a national minimum standard document has already been prepared and ready to be launched and e-portal to promote tourism and provide up-to-date information is ready to be launched and schedule airport has been upgraded as an international airport ptdc which is a national tourism organization is going to privatize all its tourism motels all over the country uh to private sector uh to upgrade them to the level of three and four star level so all these steps are some have been already done and some are in the final stages so tourism has now a great potential in this country and if the present efforts continue i hope in next two to three years its contribution will further increase in the overall national economy cpac which is linking pakistan through a great road network i am sure is going to open lots of new opportunities for the development of hospitality sector because all along this new new highway there are new tourism zones which have been created where the new infrastructure will be required and huge private structure investment will come in to develop the facilities and that now the second part i would like to talk about the challenge which we are facing right now although on one side we are moving on on a fast paced growth but as they say tourism is like fire you can cook your food on it but if you're not careful it can burn your horse down so the specific challenge which i'm going to share with you is tourism's own impact on the natural environment because natural environment is something which is basically the basic element on which tourism is based so what is happening the huge increase in the tourism flow to the various sites have been observed over the last few years so the tourism flow is increasing very rapidly and we have seen the overcrowding at tourist sites like this is the condition of safar maluk sometime during summer days when there are thousands of tourists going there every every day to see the lake so this phenomena is also impacting rapidly on the natural environment which basically attract tourists to these areas for example on the murray hills there used to be mystic forests like this the jungles they have been vanished and now the jungles of concrete the huge infrastructure is coming up and mostly the boring and large and the hotel facilities which have been added over the years without realizing the natural landscape the beauty and also the aspect of environment in these areas the landscape of valleys are under threat and there's a now uncontrolled mushroom growth development of infrastructure and hotel industries going on without any check at various places like this is the photo of naran which was not like this a few years back this is the kind of infrastructure which is self designed the water supply lines the sewage mixed up in the natural water courses which is damaging the aqua environment of these areas and the dumping of solid waste into the rivers by the hotels and the shops and all the facilities of tourism in these areas is all need now very very careful assessment and development to manage all these aspects and this you see the condition of savart which is rapidly changing these days the skyscraper hotels the buildings coming up everywhere sawath has been famous as a switzerland of asia uh but where is switzerland in this landscape you can see this is bahrain which was a nice green spot in the past but now it's all a concrete jungle again so if it's switzerland it must have been like this so we have not taken care of our landscape of our uh the the natural heritage so things are going on on a such a rapid pace which are damaging the very base of tourism in pakistan the lakes like cefa maluk was like this many years ago when i used to go for trekking in my school and college days because now this condition is like this so it's a big challenge for us even the high mountains like k2 are never spared and there's now a waste dumping sites like this the expeditions going there and dumping waste at the various base camps and the camping sites the heritage sites are even are facing this the same conditions and all that and the wildlife which we haven't so far worked out how we can promote it for ecotourism but in indiscriminate killing is ultimately will uh create such an impact that all the wildlife will be vanished by the time yeah we are just finishing uh that's the life slide so i want to emphasize that we need to now focus more on the sustainable model of tourism in which we could do development for the present tourist and host communities but we should also keep in mind that tourism should go on for the longer period of time and it should provide opportunities for the future as well right so this thanksgiving we need to follow and we need to create a balance in that thank you very much thank you sir thank you for your discussion you have highlighted the vast potential of tourism in pakistan be it religious heritage urban tourism or tourism related to different cultures languages and the biodiversity and you highlighted a very important point that we do not need to promote only one or two areas of tourism rather we can promote tourism in multiple areas which you also provided a list of and you also shared some interesting numbers regarding the tourism sector of pakistan and its contribution to our gdp and employment and jobs you also shared what the government has done regarding promoting tourism and the past three years which is a very good outlook but you also highlighted some of the challenges associated with the sector such as the environmental challenges the uncontrolled and unplanned development of infrastructure and the unfortunate issue of waste generation in tourist areas uh thank you for your time sir i would like to now request our second speaker mr ishaq to speak on the topic of importance of hotels in promotion of tourism over to you sir this malay morning welcome to everybody by the grace of almighty allah we are doing the best in pakistan things are getting [Music] [Music] foreign they november december january march hard to get a room on in these big hotels foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is foreign [Music] sector has regained foreign finally sir you talked about requires this regulation on part of the government and uh thank you sir thank you for your talk i would just like to request uh move on to our next speaker and request ms mumnar is one to speak on the topic uh role of real estate development and promotion of tourism over to you now thank you very much umar um i hope i'm audible yes yes you're audible um thank you general harun sir for making me part of such an august panel um it's great learning to be here with everyone i'll just put in my two cents um not as long it won't take as long as everyone else because i feel i have more to learn here so when we're talking about travel and tourism we see that 10.4 10.5 percent that's the global gdp share in pakistan also that's around six percent also and when we're talking real estate in tourism um let's i'll i'll just like to uh define the palette that we're looking at uh initially um we are you know starting from a simple kiosk at an airport to a mega airport to a mega luxury resort structure uh real estate is one of the key drivers uh when it comes to development of tourism and service provision which is the cornerstone of all tourism um very fortunate to have worked with both policy making and as a private entity so i'd like to address a few concerns from both sides um if we go back to like let's just say 2020 uh 2020 uh if you only considered the married group's expansion plans globally it had the most expansive expansion plans uh we could have seen um like 145 new resorts and you know luxury hotels across the world pakistan again is a huge potential market uh leicester rightly mentioned that um our hotel bookings have been crazy and you know you cannot find a good hotel room in lahore karachi and islamabad when you're traveling um that's the case it was but then we saw kobet hitting and you know our plans obviously changed because hotel industry uh losing just 100 million in revenue in just first three months of kovaid um made a lot of changes in our development plans now coming back to where you know um it leaves the real estate development uh the worst hit probably were the small and medium businesses uh the smaller uh hotels the ones that were in progress uh one of the things that we saw that was a positive step from the government at that point was a bailout package for the construction industry and also a tourism rebate at a tourism tax debate for a year now this is something that we would like to see for at least another two or three years um when we're talking about tourism um we have seen globally that in the past three years we have seen two different kinds of case studies one is the sri lanka model that completely collapsed because of uh you know what kobit did to them and one is the dubai model that was able to sustain despite you know huge investments going into expo 2020 now uh srila again if you're looking at sri lanka model the things that we have to learn here is we are the lions cannot solely be on international tourism uh while we of course we have to uh improve our visa policies and you know inbound tourism our focus has to be uh relying on domestic tourism and especially encouraging overseas pakistanis and the amount of uh you know remittances and capital they can invest in our tourism sector now um moving on from there we saw that you know there it was expected that pia would go bank bankrupt in um within a period of two years what is it where does that leave us as an as a real estate developer real estate developers would like to see um you know an ex some sort of an accelerated recovery program from the government which would include capital investment which would include um you know some kind of specialized packages early bird packages because where the development was left in 2020 we still have seen that it hasn't moved forward uh in in a huge way um integrated tourism zones are something that the government has been working on but we are yet to see the impact of that policy so integrated tourism development again is a more sustainable model that we would like to see as a developer and asking the government then uh marketing the product uh we've seen that tourism uh pakistan student marketing has seen a huge uh boost over the past three four years and you know from bloomberg to new york times to a british backpacker society everybody has been talking about how uh amazing parks pakistan is as a destination but again um you know since kovet has come in and especially in the past one year we've seen that marketing graph to have gone down now marketing is something that what uh marketing our tourism product and our development in real estate tourism real estate would increase its equity we have to remember that uh when there is a crisis we market more not less so that is something that we have to focus on uh and you know governments government should be more proactive in launching finally the brand pakistan that has been in the working for the past many years um again something uh that will help real estate development um now we know that pakistan is a triple a rated market uh as far as you know marriott's rating is concerned for pakistan uh the overall potential is greater than uh you know the city of dubai in pakistan for developing and profits from a hotel but when we look at you know enabling that those decisions and enabling that development there is a huge gap between policy and you know the execution what we see is what we want to see in fact is ncoc style decision making where government takes this on a fast track mode and gives us decisions on a weekly or a monthly model where you know it's taken as an emergency if it's such a huge developer and we all agree that it's a major developer in our economy why not take it as that and if we can have a consensus over you know covet and other issues why not have uh you know one for something that directly impacts our people directly creates job um again another year or at least five years of tax free package is something that we would really want to see um now something that real estate developers um mrra group as it's as an entity and you know something that we can focus on uh as on a national level is red residential tourism uh residential tourism is something that you know in as a contrast to a short-term tourism and hotels and you know uh airbnb models residential tourism is something that we can focus on and we have to look at the more sustainable approach of providing jobs over the years so this is something that especially uh as an enabler residential tourism helps us uh you know more in terms of fnb and retail growth as well and this is something that we have seen in costa rica other some uh places in europe where this has greatly impacted an overall long long term uh growth in tourism pakistan's uh like after mentioned that there is a holistic plan of tourism development one thing that private entities as a hotel developer as a residential tourism developer would want to see is to avoid that mushroom growth government uh government support would be highly appreciated as a pakistan overall pakistan's future model for where we see our tourism zones the way we have provided details of our integrated tourism zones across kp replicating that across pakistan uh is something that you know that would really help real estate development um another aspect that we could look at is a trail based development we have seen that buddhist trail sikh trail and then the size trail which with the albiruni circuit and the nandara fort and all these could be three major development areas where we are you know there's a sustainable uh even on the onset of it when you look at it it's a very sustainable model uh things would keep growing over the years religious tourism is not going anywhere no matter what happens even if there is a calamity like orbit or anything else that is there to stay um that is a plan that real estate can greatly uh play a part in and you know if the government is keen enough to provide us with uh spots there with the right opportunity there with faster decision making there like um mentioned by ashat um it is not again very rightly it is not government's job to run a hotel it should be the role of a specialist a private entity and um faster legislation faster legal loophole resolution from the ptdc resorts will also help us uh you know make the uh development faster um merit has plans of expanding across pakistan they're looking at 25 new hospitality projects uh ptdc could be overlapping with many of them uh private entities are more than happy we would be rather very excited to work across those and as you know also bring retail food and beverage hospitality leisure those kind of experiences uh two areas where never seen before uh but again faster decision making would really help us grow in that way um i think that mostly covers everything uh the skill development is one thing that we have discussed so far and that is rightly there um hotel industry skill development yes that is one feature but we also need to look at the industry adventure tourism skill development if we look at our gb area and you know the up north where we have the mountain tourism uh pakistan has the most number of peaks that a mountaineer wants to climb over a period of his lifetime but we have uh not even the number we are the number of mountain guides don't even come close to the number of nepali shipas that is something that we have to look at you know there's a huge demand in supply gap there and um again development of an institute in the north uh a company of course by private sector private sector is ready to invest uh even though there are not many uh you know bank lending options available in pakistan the ticket size is very small when you look at development of a luxury resort but um you know private sector is still willing to accept and real estate developers are willing to uh you know invest in it as long as we have support and we have you know regime changes don't make any difference thank you thank you thank you ms mohna for that interesting discussion you highlighted real estate as a key driver for tourism sector and you gave a number of very good suggestions for uh developing the tourism industry in pakistan you highlighted the importance of domestic tourism you talked about an accelerated recovery program uh you talked about the construction bailout package uh given by the previous government and the tourism tax debate and yes you talked about that these initiatives have to carry on for the next two three years for the sector to grow uh you also talked about the importance of tourism marketing uh you talked about building the brand pakistan and the most important aspect of your discussion was you highlighted that there needs to be ncoc style decision making regarding the potential of tourism as decisions need to be made on a timely basis and pakistan needs to provide that regulatory support to private sector so that they can develop hotels and resorts in major tourist areas of the country now thank you i will now move on to our next speaker dr shujaat ali and he will speak on the topic role of federal and provincial governments in promotion of tourism over to you sir and say you are on mute said please unmute yourself thank you omar uh i would like to talk uh i would like to thank start uh by thanking haroon and the iqbal institute of policy studies for giving me the this opportunity to be a part of this panel and to share my understanding of you know what is in this sector and what needs to be done uh and also to learn from uh the other distinguished participants of this forum now i i come after the talks by three uh practice practitioners of this field i i have my life has been that of a public servant i've never worked in the officially in the in in the sector uh but given the nature of our jobs because we uh you know our jobs are broad based i have been over uh of my my strengths in the in the in various assignments i've been interacting interfacing with with some tourist uh bodies and tourist entities and particularly you know i remember uh in my earlier days when i was uh an assistant commissioner in batagram um i got a chance to start my career these very zones uh very attractive zones of pakistan uh where uh which uh uh aftab sabha has talked to with so much passion and fondness uh about uh i was posted in patagaram and i was there for two years i remember the the the ptdc uh uh hotel i had a role to play in terms of selecting the site for the ptdc uh motel at charcoal uh on the boundary of monserra and uh uh and uh uh batagram i think it was the year 1987-88 i've also gone there subsequently and it's it's still there uh along with some some uh another private sector uh entity which has uh uh come about show me i in terms of this just this background um i i will just pick up a few points from the the talk given by the earlier and and sort of elaborate them uh uh very rightly said shazab said that it is not the job of the public sector in pakistan to to be in the leading in the driving seat in the for the promotion of the sector i entirely agree with him uh in fact it's a it's a story of neglect over the years that you know while most of the policy and regulatory control in this sector was with the government uh like so many other areas of endeavors we sadly uh missed the boat over the years well the world around us was you know catching on onto the opportunities that that the world was uh presenting uh everybody uh with i mean the opportunities you know the world was was presenting those opportunities to everybody who would benefit we we were like you know slow in terms of reacting and and and and getting into the act to make use of those opportunities so in this context you know i nobody mentioned the the the league tables i'm so fond of you know when i come i've been on the other panel 10 panels as part of the iaps program i've generally i've looked at these international leagues and the international the the league table the ranking the ranking that is accepted as the standard is the one that done by a world economic forum and i think it's called the travel and tourism competitive index now this index uh ranks for 140 countries and it ranks four it has four pillars enabling environment tourism and travel and tourism policy and enabling conditions tourism infrastructure and natural and cultural resources now pakistan likes so many other areas of the devil i have to say this you know when i feel disappointed about it the pakistani amongst these 140 countries our ranks in the year 2019 was we stood at the 121st position with a score of 3.1 uh in a range that stipulated range of one to seven where seven is best and one is the least is the worst so we 120 and then i looked at in at uh in in in a sort of more disagreeable disaggregated way and i of all the 19 countries 19 countries we're talking of 140 countries and pakistan is 120 position so there are 19 other countries below pakistan other than yemen and haiti all others 17 countries are from africa so i have generally been wherever i've spoken although i mean as a proud pakistani i should not be taking this uh pessimistic tone but you know we one also has to be a realist as well and you know that that that engagement with realism will you know sort of uh get us this the sense of where we really stand you know when we're not in uh in the world of delusions uh we are so in terms of uh realism uh you know engagement with reality we are uh we are we are in the africa league even in the tourism sector where with all these abundance of resources beautiful uh terrain one of the finest terrains in the world one of the final resource endowments in the world and i think our stops have talked about the peaks four four amongst the uh i think four amongst the top peaks or eight thousand uh fall within the pakistani territory and hundreds of peaks over seven thousand meters so with all this you know endowment and all this good fortune in terms of what we have we very sadly lack in terms of our performance in the league tables of the world and we the main one of the the most important that that that that thing that comes out of this analysis is our in terms of the uh when we look at the south asian region they also have a disaggregated analysis in this report pakistan remains the least competitive country in south asia with the least favorable safety and security record in terms of in amongst those five countries nepal sri lanka india bangladesh we are the lowest in in the uh security although one must give credit to our our our our institutions uh for for this the improvements the great improvement that that has come about over the last four five six years and i'm sure that's also impacting you know this the good these good news the stories of uh good things happening it's partly a reflection of uh of the the the improvement that has taken place in the security environment over the last uh uh five six seven years so uh this is generally in this uh context the the government's governments have a huge role me i have a detail i i don't have that much time but i would urge uh i i ips to know to look at this report and you know sort of uh maybe as part of uh the the right app you know some of these uh the the aspects that are highlighted uh are made part of the report that that is sent by by the institute to the policy makers as recommendations of the institute now pakistan has suddenly another key thing that i want to talk about is the 18th amendment the 8th prior to the 18th amendment the tourism was tourism was the subject dealt largely by the federal government and the sort of the flagship of the federal government in this area was the pakistan tourism ptdc and of top self which is heading now and all that ptdc had to show over all these years was just a few motels across spread out across pakistan and most of these hotels were two many of them in the northern areas um and there was a few information few and the private sector outfits were few and far between in those times but that was the radar entirely controlled by the the public sector but after the 18th amendment the subject moved on moved to the uh differential governments and for a number of years after 2010 uh i think this word chaos was mentioned by miss momona i think it's the situation chaos is the word to reflect the situation for the few years after because there was no guidance there was no sense of where to go there was no policy framework and even this organization pt dc when i was reading the for the preparation for this uh for this uh webinar i what i found out sadly to my uh to my this thing into my knowledge that this ptdc also was kind of dysfunctional for most of these years it's so only last two three years that there has been an awareness in the federal government that you know there's also a federal goal and the provinces have also come down to this to this uh awareness that there's some aspects uh there are some aspects like visa policy life security and standards these are aspects where there is a role for the federal uh government and it is a reflection of this new awareness that some of these the bullet points that we see in the presentation that some of these things have now come to come into the the federal purview like you know building a country image country branding provinces are doing also this branding but all of the world the countries are also selling their images as a country so pakistan who will do this i don't think the information ministries or the foreign ministry has done that job adequately so there's some kind of a need for an agency an entity in the federal government to undertake this this part of of branding of pakistan as a choice destination for international tourists now uh also in terms of uh no there's an awareness that this is a sector which is very important for uh for you know with this demographic dividend that we have this you know we are the youngest country in the world and we have to find jobs for our people who are entering the labor source so we've talked about there's been a lot of talk of construction construction is also related because of linkages with real estate but then addition in addition to the hardware the there's also in the services sector there are a lot of global new global opportunities for for absorption of younger people and the hotel the hospitality sector is a great avenue for this kind of an absorption uh in terms of you know attraction of international tourists giving a boost to domestic tourism uh people the incomes have gone up uh people have become there's a growth in affluent middle class they are looking for new opportunities for leisure there's a new kind of demand and this demand has to be somehow gated too it will only become useful for the country if the enabling conditions are also there and some of the enabling conditions in terms of coordination coordination institutions in terms of regulatory frameworks in terms of you know packages i think at the moment on top talked of uh tax holidays incentive packages for uh foreign investment these are some of the jobs that some of the activities tasks that have to be performed by the public sector by the federal government by the four provincial governments but in a way that is that that is friendly to the private sector because most of the activities this activity going forward has to be done by the private sector the government sector does not have the capacity to fully capitalize on the the volume the momentum um aspects and they're affected in and what they say is coordination mechanisms are largely absent not only between uh the the federal and the provinces but uh they are ahead of other provinces although in terms of you know giving some kind of a recognition to tourism uh in in the provincial domain punjab was in the lead in the in the 80s and the 90s because the tourism development a tdcp development corporation of punjab was in the lead it was set up in 1987 well while no other no such entity which a leading entity was was present in any or existing in any other province's province of the country at that time not only coordination between the the federal and the provincial governments but this integration concept has this this uh it should not be the the department of tourism alone there are other departments which have important roles to play in terms of this idea of going forward sustainable like the forest department like the environment department like the uh the roads department the salary department's you know and just that info could coordinate in the carrega uh at the provincial level as a sector so is your sustainable concept where different agencies have as stakeholders are responsible for the the the value and the the stewardship of these of this area in terms of building the right institutions the building the right structures i think there are a lot of work still needs to be done thank you so much being done somebody has been being done but some more needs to be done i think i've said enough bucky questions the tourism sector you uh talked about the travel and tourism competitive index uh and pakistan's ranking among other countries in the world you particularly highlighted that pakistan is stands with the african league in with regards to our tourism sector and the four indicators which the index looks on in with regard to the policy and regulatory landscape you talked about the 18th amendment and the aftermath of that decision on the tourism sector how the tourism sector was devolved to the provinces and there was a time period of chaos and basically policy framework and coordination was missing there was a lack of awareness among provinces regarding the importance of tourism and very later on they finally realized the challenges of providing an enabling environment to tourism and basically the capacity of the government you talked about uh coordination mechanisms and integrated tourism zones which were also highlighted by miss mogna thank you sir thank you for your discussion and and now before we move on to our question and answer session i would like to request lieutenant general harun aslam retired to please present his views over to you sir thank you very much thank you very much everybody for uh such wonderful talks you have given i have not prepared my part of the speech but i'll just what i have gleaned from whatever you have said i like to comment on that first of all you see uh it goes like this that we have to put our house in order our our uh our media managers or our embassies uh have to sell something which has to be good so if you we we have uh in islamabad there are processions white process processions with our religious extremists going around on rampage so what image do we leave for the country abroad so we have to you know become more tourist friendly through building our image pakistan has a serious image problem and which was reflected in a comment by an australian player i'm forgetting his name he said i was i was pleasantly shocked to see pakistan is just like a normal country so therefore we have an image problem this is one i'll randomly take on the points and these are my views you can always differ with me now um dr shujaat talked about the 18th amendment and the the obligations and obligations of the provincial government in my reckoning i think that the division the administrative division and district have to play a great role because they regulate the you know they have to create the enabling environment let's take murray now it's a district what's the problem that nobody has ever taught those those people who are working there what is hospitality management is there a single institute which is teaching hospitality management at least courtesy and how the tourists are to be dealt with in money no they only know how to make money and that's what i've been told they have been taught to them so therefore i think it i have always weird kind of ideas i think that having a uniform syllabus is wrong i went to singapore and in their high school i got to know through the planning division that in their high school they teach two optional subjects one of them essential one is hospitality management and other is retail sales because that is the occupation you drop out stake when they leave the high school or college the 12th class so therefore i think take example of uh narang now we talk we talk a lot about the the the environmental issues people throw down around the garbage and all i think this holds good for narang have a good tourist police enforcement who's going to enforce that the district management the police there they should be there should be strict uh penalties for that for northern areas they should levy taxes on the tourists um we have to be tourist friendly plus we have to regulate foreign [Music] um in rehabilitating the image of a real estate development because you know it gives job opportunities to millions of people and it was demonized earlier saying there is a property dealer oh here the property dealer so now there is a formal education uh a national university of science and technology and central punjab university where they are giving certifications in real estate science and in central punjab university they are giving a bachelor's bs degrees in in real estate development real estate development has to go along with uh tourism development um [Music] [Music] but do we have any questions yes okay moving on to the question and answers uh our first question is uh basically a comment that we are a tourist friend are we a tourist friendly nation and is our society tourist friendly so i would like to uh request uh mr uh isha to please comment on that please repeat it again repeat it again a question please yes we are friendly i think whoever come to pakistan they are taking very good feedback from pakistan and stuff attitude because work for the five-star hotels like a burban like episode of pc karachi whenever they come to pakistan hours america i think we are providing the best service look like as safest country of the world sir what are your comments are we tourist friendly nature i must say that pakistan is absolutely a tourist friendly country and there are many uh vlogs and very experiences shared by foreign visitors on media and social media where they have had a great experience of hospitality in this country rather we are so hospitable that we never charge to foreigners for the food for accommodation and for other services foreign i foreign was much friendlier towards tourism before 1977. or yeah this these were my school college days in lahore so lahore street stupa which even in the summer in the hottest days of summer you would find young tourists female and male with with the bags cotton bags foreign things are vastly [Music] management foreign so the question is that pakistan's deserts are unexplored for tourism and most tourists visit northern areas so what can be done regarding increasing tourism in the desert areas particularly in the colder weather tourist sites for uh the foreigners and as well as for domestic tourists off season tourism activity in desert areas foreign foreign pretty impressed but what he said was there is no good hotel there hotel um foreign [Music] [Music] i yes sir we have a last question uh related to real estate development uh the question says that real estate development is restricted to urban areas and there is hardly any involvement of real estate sector in the planned development of tourism sites so i would like uh miss mogna to give your views on that um thank you my um real estate development i would like to you know add on to this real development is not just restricted to urban areas it is restricted to areas with enough infra infrastructure and uh unfortunately that's restricted to uh urban areas however there's a lot of um tourism real estate development happening up north specially but again uh people are taking that gamble it's a risk because the infrastructure still hasn't reached those places if we're talking at about lake or other places like that chitral unfortunately that's the case it's not just restricted but infrastructure needs to real estate will move as the infrastructure moves yeah may i like to add that you know real estate development is not based on patriotism alone you know you can't yeah good pakistani and i am going to prepare to risk my money it doesn't happen so there have to be enabling environment by the state the state and the representation of state is done by the government um before we wind up just get a parting comment from everyone yes yes i would like to request a parting comment from everyone uh we can start by mr after sir please your parting comment um well thank you i think it was a very uh useful and eye-opening discussion because the diverse experience shared by all of us was quite useful for uh for moving on to find out some good way forward um well i i hundred percent agree with jenna haroon about the about the management of tourism in the present scenario i think it is very very crucial as i highlighted that yes 18th amendment i think was uh putting tourism in a provincial domain i think was not a very good decision because it was earlier in the concurrent place and once provincial governments were all open to do anything in their province in terms of tourism development foreign foreign foreign is things are getting better in pakistan as you know that marriott married courtyard radisson hilton moving peak into control hilton they're all dying to come to pakistan that but [Music] thank you um just to hammer down on the earlier point uh an emergency approach uh to resolving issues where all stakeholders are being met one body where everybody's sitting and everybody gets to have a voice um it's a huge country there's huge potential tourism would grow no matter what we do um the quality of what will grow and whether it would be a mushroom growth or a plant growth depends on the decisions that we're going to collectively take so as a developer as a stakeholder um we need to be heard and you know we want swift decision making thank you thank you miss uh sir i would like dr shujar ali i would like you to give your parting comments tremendous potential uh in this area uh in terms of uh you know getting a share in the the growth of the world in in this in these uh activities uh tremendous potential but as everybody has highlighted underscored uh capacity building or in across a very wide sweat of uh activities is needed and uh for that to happen maybe we could do it the the real uh drivers of the country uh in a democracy are the politicians or we basically look up to uh know the these priorities that are set up at the political level this kind of an awareness is the potential in terms of uh satisfying people giving them jobs and opportunities yeah i think the political level can challenge me but i challenge pakistani thank you sir uh i would like to request to present his parting comments uh no thank you very much i would just like to thank everyone uh the panelists eminent panelists and i think this has been one of the most interesting uh webinars we had because what we do is that we do draw certain conclusions and then recommendations and they will be floated to the people who are the decision makers and uh that is what the ebola institute of policy studies does number of points covered and uh just now um the last comment from dr shujaat was about the the the political level uh that what is there kind of involvement um you see there are two kind of politicians as relevant to the tourism industry one belonging to those areas you know if somebody coming from narang and there are public representatives and certainly they should be taken on board they should rather give patronage and then another is the governmental level there are tourism minister and all so and don't take me wrong but we have to actually the the people the intelligentsia the government servants they have also to play a role to to you know to involve them and to guide them also they are politicians they will have a different mindset but they have to be drawn into the positive aspect of tourism and once again thank you very much for your whole heart and participation over to you omar thank you thank you sir and i would like to thank all our participants uh for taking our time their precious time and presenting their views and glad to have you on our uh panel and that's all from this thank you everyone allah [Music]

2022-05-13 01:06

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