By Anzal Amin
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has made a big jump on International Travel and Tourism Development Index by moving up six places as per the latest report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The 2021 edition of the Travel and Tourism Development Index includes 117 countries. The index ranks the countries based on the set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable and resilient development of the travel and tourism industry of each country.
Aftab ur Rehman Rana, Managing Director of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) informed that as per the latest edition of the international travel and tourism competitive index titled “Rebuilding for a Sustainable and Resilient Future,” Pakistan has been ranked 83rd, which is up from 89th place in the index’s previous edition of 2019. “Six points increase in the raking of Pakistan on global travel and tourism index is quite a significant progress and now Pakistan is among the countries in the Asia Pacific Region that have improved its ranking the most since 2019”, he said.
He informed that during the last two years Federal and Provincial Governments have made good progress in improving the performance of tourism sector in Pakistan by taking various steps to overall improve the condition of tourism services infrastructure, business environment, safety and security, health and hygiene, ICT readiness, and socio economic resilience and conditions. “Although we have made good progress but still we need to do a lot to further enhance the performance of tourism sector in Pakistan in coming years which has huge potential to play a key role in the overall socio-economic development of Pakistan,” he added.
Overall, Japan has occupied the top spot on the latest edition of the index. Japan is followed by the USA, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Singapore and Italy which have been ranked in top 10 index for Travel and Tourism Development, respectively.
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan had constituted the National Coordination Committee on Tourism (NCCT) to “steer the country towards becoming the fastest growing tourism destination”.
The committee was tasked to raise the competitiveness of the tourism industry and “maximize utilization of Pakistan’s natural, cultural, historical, archeological, religious and geographical tourist assets for employment creation, poverty reduction, sustained economic growth, social inclusion and quality of life improvement”.
According to the Terms of Reference, the committee were assigned to oversee and review the implementation of national tourism strategy and integration of provincial and regional policies.
It will act as a focal point for inter-provincial, inter-ministerial, inter-departmental, and inter-agency coordination to resolve implementation issues with respect to the tourism development sector.
Geo-mapping and profiling of all the tourist spots and tourism and hospitality business and products will also come under the scope of the committee. It will identify barriers to tourism development with complete recommendations for their removal to create an enabling environment for the tourism sector.
