Lahore: Jovago.pk, the country’s premier hotel booking e-commerce website released a report on the Pakistani Tourism Industry which revealed that tourism makes up 7pc of the country’s total GDP.
As cited in the report, the internet played a critical part in helping to increase tourism in Pakistan and also created more job opportunities, constituting 6.2pc of the total employment. As a result of it, 1,429,500 jobs were created in the tourism industry.
And in good news for the hospitality industry, hotel occupancy rate surged by 80pc in 2016 from 35pc during 2015. Jovago’s report predicted that around 10 international chain of hotels are expected to start their operations in Pakistan over the next five years.
The report added that Pakistan’s Tourism sector had attracted 1.04m international tourists alongside generating revenue in the realm of $1b (Rs114.4b) in 2015.
Domestic travel is predicted to increase by 6.5pc in 2016 to Rs199.9b and continue rising by 5.4pc on a yearly basis to reach Rs343.4b in 2026.
It further mentioned that spending on leisurely traveling is predicted to rise by 2.7pc to reach Rs1,084.8b, which will see an increase of 5.4pc annually to reach Rs1.839.9b by 2026.