ISLAMABAD – Pakistan wants to introduce a single visa for tourists visitingthe Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) sub-region, tofacilitate tourist movement and increase the likelihood of tourists doingmulti-country visits, increasing the average time of stay and spending pertourist.
This has been revealed in the Asian Development Bank (ADB) report “AsianEconomic Integration Report 2019-2020, demographic change, productivity,and the role of technology”.
The report further maintained that strengthening the intra-subregional tieswould also help CAREC “brand” itself better as a future tourist destinationfor visitors from other countries in Asia, which makes up at least 60% ofits market.
Pakistan has recently introduced changes to its visa policy — 50 countriesare eligible to apply for a visa-on-arrival under the tourist category,while its online visa system is open to 175 countries.
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Visitors from Southeast Asia have become more Asia-centric. Its shares ofintra-subregional (38.7%) and inter-subregional (43.4%) tourism have grownrelative to 2010.
Intra-subregional visitors increased by around half a million in 2017,while inter-subregional arrivals recorded brisk growth (7.2 millionvisitors more than in 2016), especially Myanmar and Vietnam.
