LAHORE, Sept 25: The Tourism Development Corporation Punjab (TDCP) is organizing a three-day fair to mark the World Tourism Day on Monday (tomorrow).

The TDCP is organizing the fair at Alhamra Arts Centre, Lahore, as well as seminars and cultural programmes in Rawalpindi, Multan and Faisalabad. As children and youth are the lifeline of tourism, different competitions will be organized among school students in the three districts. Functions for special children will also be organized in these cities.

This was stated by Tourism and Resort Development Department (TRDD) secretary Hasan Nawaz Tarar and TDCP managing director Irfan Ali while speaking at a news conference at TDCP's Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management on Saturday.

Mr Tarar said the fair activities had been planned in a manner that it should project the scope of tourism in a befitting manner and serve as a message afterwards.

Giving details of the events of the fair, MD Mr Ali said an art and photographs' exhibition would be organized, where tourism and culture related paintings and pictures made by the renowned painters and photographers would be displayed. The theme of the paintings and photographs is "Culture and features of different areas of Pakistan".

He said an art competition would also be organized among different schools' students besides tableaux and skits by students.

Mr Ali said a tourist village would be established in collaboration with the tour operators in the Alhamra Art Centre premises. He said the emphasis would be on adventure tourism. Different kinds of tents and equipment for hiking and adventure tourism would be displayed at the village.

He said big screens would also be installed at the fair venue where informative documentaries on adventure tourism and some selected portions from old films would be played.

He said big display of handicrafts, local dresses, books exhibition as well as film and food stalls would also be established. Artisans invited from different parts of the province would also perform their skills at the fair.

Mr Ali also said this mega event was being organized by the corporation for the first time and it would come up as a big experiment and a challenge Mr Ali also said that a major car rally would also be organized in Cholistan in December this year.

Answering a question, he said, a totally new range of literature had been developed and would be available at the fair. He said the TDCP had also declared each resort as an information centre and all problems being reported were being rectified.

Answering another question, Mr Tarar said the department was waiting for the tourism policy to be announced by the federal government. As soon as the federal tourism policy would be announced, the Punjab would incorporate important features to finalize the Punjab tourism policy.