The World Bank will help the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) develop tourist facilities and resorts in the country by sponsoring different projects.
This was decided in a meeting held between PTDC and World Bank delegations here on Monday.
PTDC Managing Director Abdul Ghafoor said that the bank was also supporting the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), besides several other development projects.
The PTDC will develop tourist facilities and resorts along the CPEC through joint ventures as well as private investments.
After the restoration of peace in the country, a remarkable increase in foreign tourist flow has been witnessed compared to previous years.
The projects include a bus terminal at Nankana Sahib, motels in Karachi’s Hawks Bay, Moenjodaro Motel, and Baran Kalay and tourist facilitation centres in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Muzaffarabad, Gilgit, Peshawar, and Quetta.
Abdul Ghafoor informed the delegation that a lot of the land owned by the PTDC was available for tourism projects, including land in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Balochistan’s Gaddani Beach, Sukkur, Banjosa Lake, Muzaffarabad, Thaleechi in Gilgit-Baltistan, Buffer in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Garam Chasma in Chitral, and Kalar Kahar.
Head of the delegation and tourism expert Wouter Schalken said that Pakistan’s tourist destinations are worth more than any other part of the world. “All we lack is appropriate publicity and promotion in the right direction,” Schalken said. “We recommend that the PTDC project Pakistan’s tourism destinations over national and international media aggressively to bring more foreign tourists to the country.”
