DNA

Islamabad, APR 20: Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) and Mishal Pakistan here Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote research in tourism sector of Pakistan to develop national travel and tourism competitiveness index on annual basis.

Managing Director PTDC, Aftab ur Rehman Rana signed the MoU on behalf of PTDC while CEO Mishal Pakistan, Amir Jahangir signed from the other side to jointly work for bringing travel and tourism related initiatives into public discussions, through various interventions. Mishal Pakistan is the country partner institute of the World Economic Forum and PTDC is national tourism organizations of Pakistan.

Aftab ur Rehman Rana, Managing Director, PTDC on the occasion said PTDC was working to promote tourism at home and abroad through its various initiatives and the launch of upcoming Tourism Brand Pakistan will serve as a milestone achieving major targets to open new avenues of tourism and project soft image of Pakistan as tourist destination.

Amir Jahangir the Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan said, “this partnership is a significant step towards institutionalizing the travel and tourism policy making efforts by focusing on improving the tourism sector data”. He further said, “Pakistan is making a conscious effort to showcase and improve country’s travel and tourism industry on global competitiveness rankings. This will improve not only the country’s image in the long run but would also impact the travel and tourism related global indicators as well.”

The prime focus of this MoU is to establish a working relationship between PTDC and Mishal Pakistan to establish a mechanism to collect necessary data on the growth of tourism sector in Pakistan and produce a national travel and tourism competitiveness index report annually to educate policy makers and industry stakeholders about the overall trends and challenges faced by the industry. 

Under this MoU, PTDC and Mishal will establish a mechanism at provincial and federal levels to compile tourism and hospitality sector data and produce a research report on the overall growth of tourism sector in Pakistan, as a result it will also help in improving Pakistan’s rankings on the International Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index which is biannually produced by the World Economic Forum.

Mishal and PTDC will also organize trainings for journalists on how to report on travel and tourism competitiveness related data and the reforms undertaken by PTDC to promote tourism in Pakistan. Mishal will assist PTDC in creating international linkages with technology platforms that can generate influence around public discourse including Google, META, Facebook, Instagram, and etc. This interaction will create new approaches for tourism awareness. Mishal will create multiple categories around travel and tourism at the annual journalism AGAHI Awards. It will create opportunities for PTDC to work with industry players and the academic institutions, especially the mass communications/journalism departments to create short film/documentary competitions and festivals on various verticals of travel, tourism and hospitality/generosity with RINSTRA and other industry players.

PTDC has the vision to develop the tourism sector as a national priority in a sustainable and acceptable manner, taking full advantage of regional and international trends and developments so that it can significantly contribute to the improvement of quality of life in Pakistan whilst promoting the country’s cultural and natural heritage.

PTDC is the apex body in the country to create public policy options for the public as well as private sector to expand the business opportunities that can attract domestic and foreign tourists as their preferred destination for affordable and sustainable tourism.