ISLAMABAD: National Tourism Coordination Board (NTCB) has recently formed a national committee to develop a strategy and action plan to ensure quick recovery of tourism sector in the post Covid-19 scenario. The first virtual meeting of this committee was held on 13th April. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Aftab Rana, member National Tourism Coordination Board and attended by 9 other members including Mrs. Midhat Shahzad, Secretary Tourism AJK government, Mr. Asifullah, Secretary Tourism, Gilgit-Baltistan, Mr. Intikhab Alam, Managing Director PTDC, Mr. Junaid Khan, Managing Director Tourism Corporation of KP , Mr. Maqsood Ul Mulk, President PATO, Mr. Naeem Shareef, President TAAP, Mr. Zubair Baweja, President PHA, Mr. Tanveer Jabbar, Managing Director TDCP, Mrs. Sumer Isaacs, Advisor to Chairman of NTCB and Mr. Babar Malik and Mr Umar Yar Khan from PTDC.
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In his opening comments, Mr. Rana briefed the members about the current situation due to Coronavirus outbreak all over the world and its severe impacts of travel and tourism industry of Pakistan. He further informed to the committee members, Pakistan which was very much optimistic to have an overwhelming tourist season this year due to improved image of the country as a tourism destination in international media and relaxations of negative travel advisories from the number of countries on travel, will also face the economic fallout of current pandemic which will increase the risk of instability in the tourism sector especially at grassroots level in mountain areas of Pakistan where many people engaged in tourism and hospitality sector will become jobless.
He said, the committee is gathering data about the impact of this situation on tourism sector of Pakistan and working out details of losses faced by the businesses. He said this crisis is not simple as it will have far-reaching impacts on the tourism sector and on national economy as whole. He said, all the stakeholders at federal, provincial and private sector levels need to be part of the Solution and for that there is need to develop a public and private partnership to work hand in hand to bounce back effectively.
Later on, detailed discussion was held and all the members shared their views about the issues they are facing in the present crisis and shared their feedback about various options to overcome this challenge. Members from TAAP, PATO and PHA highlighted the issue of cash flow and liquidity which is badly affecting tourism and hospitality businesses due to this crisis and suggested that government should immediately announce a bailout package to support tourism and hospitality sector otherwise many of businesses may go in bankruptcy and large number of employee become job less. Various options to ensure smooth and quick recovery process and build the confidence of foreign and domestic tourists were also discussed at length. The members of the committee have been given task to further discuss this matter at provincial and association levels and submit their final recommendations by 16th April to develop a sort to midterm tourism recovery strategy and action plan for Pakistan with the active involvement of all the concerned stakeholders. The committee will submit its final report to the Chairman of NTCB by the last week of this month.
