May 14, 2002	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 1, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, May 13: The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) is unlikely to meet its revenue targets set for the current year.

This was stated by the PTDC managing director, Masood Ali Khan, while talking to reporters here on Monday.

“We were expecting more than 150,000 international tourists in connection with the International Year of Mountains 2002, but owing to the existing security problems in the country the target could not be met,” he said.

The United Nations has declared the year 2002 as International Year of Mountains (IYM 2002) in order to preserve the mountain’s natural beauty.

The PTDC chief said: “The corporation has requested many countries not to place negative advisory for the intending tourists but the foreign tourists were not willing to come to Pakistan.”

He said the ongoing war against terrorism and a series of attacks, particularly targeting foreigners living in Pakistan, had its own adverse corollaries on the tourism industry in the country. The bomb explosion in Karachi in which 11 French nationals were killed was another blow to the industry, he added.

Commenting on the recent wave of terrorism, Mr Khan said people all over the world knew that terrorism was not their culture, therefore, it was a matter of time when international tourists would again start coming to Pakistan.