ISLAMABAD: A total of 322 photographs and 100 paintings featuring Pakistani landscapes, culture and adventure sports were submitted by established and amateur photographers and painters from across the country for a competition organised at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) on Monday.

The competition was organised by Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) to celebrate International Tourism Day 2022. There were two categories for the painting competition including for youth and children.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Sports and Tourism Awn Chaudhry inaugurated the programme.

Speaking on the occasion, he said the works showed effort on the part of young and budding artists to create awareness among the public about the importance of tourism, environment-related issues and promotion of sustainable and responsible tourism.

President reiterates tourism sector can become source of income for many

Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) Managing Director Aftabur Rehman Rana said the purpose of this competition was to engage the youth in healthy activities side by side educating them about activities.

World Tourism Day was designated by the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in Sept 1979. This date was chosen to coincide with an important milestone in world tourism: the anniversary of the adoption of the UNWTO Statutes on Sept 27, 1970. The theme for this year is ‘Rethinking Tourism’.

The exhibition was followed by a two-day national conference in which experts and representatives of provincial, federal governments and related departments discussed topics like removing bottlenecks to promote foreign tourism in Pakistan, recovery of tourism after floods and widespread rains, issues and challenges of mountaineering and trekking tourism in Pakistan, tourism development and promotion in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), initiatives of provincial tourism departments for the development and promotion of tourism.

Meanwhile, President Dr Arif Alvi vowed to renew the pledge for setting priorities to consider the potential of the tourism sector in order to advance economic prosperity and progress of our country.

In his message on World Tourism Day, he said, “Pakistan is a country that has attractive and wonderful tourist sites in the world due to its remarkable landscape, diversity and rich history of ancient civilisations. It has potential for religious tourism.”

The president said that tourism is an integral source of income for the people and it is certainly relevant and connected to local economic development as well as to the improvement of civic facilities in far-flung areas that would benefit the whole country in various aspects.

“Tourism is a source of earning foreign exchange, a tool for job creation and poverty alleviation. Undoubtedly, it also creates harmony among people from different parts of the country,” he said, adding that the government of Pakistan has focused on this sector during the last few years.

“As the theme of this year is ‘Rethinking Tourism”, now we have the opportunity to rethink this sector that was impacted by the pandemic along with the rest of the world and now it is badly affected by floods.

“There is dire need to come up with long-term strategic planning to boost the tourism industry on a sustainable basis and set new boundaries for securing its future,” he said.

Besides the need for increasing the number of foreign tourists travelling in Pakistan, he said that programmes should be developed with a special focus on safe and secure tourism.

He said that he was sure that the government will utilise all its resources to turn challenges into opportunities by restarting the industry from grass root level and ensuring cooperation and collaboration of allied government agencies to come out of the crisis and rebuild better.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2022