ISLAMABAD – The government on Monday approved the formation of a 25-memberNational Tourism Coordination Board for the promotion of tourism in thecountry.The decision, taken during the meeting of Tourism Task Force chaired byPrime Minister Imran Khan,was aimed at promoting tourism, enhancing coordination between federationand provinces, formulatingprovincial regulatory framework, and highlighting other objectivesincluding the promotion of country’stourism at international level.The 25-member National Tourism Coordination Board would comprise ofrepresentatives fromfederal ministries, provincial departments and people from private sectortourism industry.The meeting was attended by Minister for Information and BroadcastingChaudhry Fawad Hussain,Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Dr. Fehmida Mirza, SpecialAssistant to PM Iftikhar Durrani,Zulfiqar Bukhari, Provincial Ministers and members of the task force.With a decision for reorganization of Pakistan Tourism DevelopmentCoordination (PTDC), it wasalso decided to transfer Rs 200 billion properties of PTDC to theprovinces. PTDC would serve as theSecretariat of National Tourism Coordination Board.The meeting also decided to constitute special working groups on ReligiousTourism; AdventureTourism; Cultural, Historic and Archeological Tourism; Trans-Himaliya JeepRally Group; Infrastructureand Facilitation; Regulatory and Policy Reforms; and Investment and TourismBranding.The Prime Minister was briefed about the progress achieved so far in thearea of tourism andwas told that work on the creation of 20 new tourism sites in KhyberPakhtoonkhawa was inprogress.He was also briefed about the progress on making Bala Hissar Fort inPeshawar as a tourismsite.The Prime Minister said that Bala Hissar Fort should be converted into acenter of touristactivities.He said that arrangement for the commercial use of 800 and 157 rest housesin Punjab and KPK,respectively, should be finalized, adding, Eco Tourism should be givenspecial focus.
Tourism development in Pakistan: Federal government takes important steps
