Awn virtually participates in meeting of heads of tourist administrations of SCO member states

ISLALMABAD-Awn Chaudhry, Advisor to Prime Minister on Tourism and Sports/Chairman of PTDC, along with Aftab ur Rehman Rana, Managing Director PTDC, Friday virtually participated in the meeting of Heads of Tourist Administrations of the Member States of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) hosted by India in hybrid mode. The APM, in his opening comments, highlighted Pakistan’s tourism potential and expressed desire for promote proactive partnerships among SCO member states to promote tourism among the member states. While giving his remarks in SCO meeting, he stated that Pakistan attaches great importance to its membership of this esteemed organization and as part of the greater SCO mosaic, Pakistan too is very proud of its rich cultural heritage and tourism potential. In line with the SCO Joint Tourism Action Plan, Pakistan is in the process of implementing a comprehensive Tourism Promotion National Action Plan, he added. He emphasized that there is a greater need to adopt tourist friendly visa policies and increase the aerial connectivity among the main cities of the SCO countries to facilitate business and recreational travel. In the closing remarks, Aftab ur Rehman Rana, Managing Director, PTDC said: “We are confident that by working together in a cooperative and collaborative manner, we can utilize rich potential of tourism of SCO member states for the socio economic development of the people of this region as well as we may promote peace and security in the region by promoting people to people contact through the promotion of tourism.” He added that government of Pakistan is trying to facilities movement of tourists at national, regional and international level by adopting a more tourist friendly visa policies and by improving facilities for visitors. He hoped that the joint protocol and SCO action plan for tourism will pave the way to jointly work for the progressive growth of tourism in the SCO member states for the long term benefit and economic prosperity of the region.

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