CHITRAL: Participants at a training workshop on ‘hospitality and tourism’ underscored the need of devising a mechanism to exploit the potential of tourism development in Chitral to create employment opportunities and reduce poverty. The Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa organised the workshop for the mediapersons the other day.

The speakers discussed the challenges and opportunities of adventure and culture tourism, improvement of the critical tourist facilities and promotion of new tourist destinations in the district. They termed the provision of road infrastructure as prerequisite for the promotion of tourism.

The speakers called for proper publicity of the primitive culture of the ancient Kalash people, the wild and thrilling nature of polo matches played in Shandur festival, over 100 mountain peaks, the rich biodiversity supporting the population of snow leopard and Kashmir markhor.

The promotion of new tourist destinations, including Madak Lusht, Golen, Karim Abad, Terich valley, Baroghil and Chitral Gol National Park were also suggested for promotion of tourism, which were hitherto obscure from the tourists for want of roads.

The speakers also suggested establishment of a tourism training school in the district to impart training to the youth, and inclusion of tourism subject in the school curriculum.

Resource person Syed Harir Shah, who is a tour manager, said the role of media was crucial in promotion of tourism in the area as the media personnel could easily educate the people on how to create a conducive environment to attract the tourists. The chief guest, Sardar Ayub, who is the regional programme manager of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, said that time was ripe for promotion of tourism into a full-fledged industry in Chitral.

He said after the completion of Lowari tunnel, the scenario of Chitral had changed altogether making the winter tourism possible as an all-weather road had now become available. He said different snow-clad valleys of Chitral, including Madak Lusht, Sheshi, Golen and Oveer provided ideal place for skiing as winter sport.

Sardar Ayub distributed certificates among the participants and termed the event highly useful for the mediapersons due to their nature of job and duty.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2019