ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) and Mishal Pakistan here Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote research in the tourism sector of Pakistan to develop national travel and tourism competitive index on annual basis.
Managing Director PTDC, Aftab ur Rehman Rana signed the MoU on behalf of PTDC while CEO Mishal Pakistan, Amir Jehangir signed from the other side to jointly work for bringing travel and tourism-related initiatives into public discussions, through various interventions. Mishal Pakistan is a country partner institute of the World Economic Forum and PTDC is the national tourism organization of Pakistan.
The prime focus of this MoU is to establish a working relationship between PTDC and Mishal Pakistan to establish a mechanism to collect necessary data on the growth of the tourism sector in Pakistan and produce a national travel and tourism competitive index report annually to educate policymakers and industry stakeholders about the overall trends and challenges faced by the industry.
Under this MoU, PTDC and Mishal will establish a mechanism at provincial and federal levels to compile tourism and hospitality sector data and produce a research report on the overall growth of the tourism sector in Pakistan as result it will also help in improving Pakistan’s ranking on the International Travel and Tourism Competitive Indus which is biannually produced by the World Economic Forum.
MD PTDC on the occasion said PTDC was working to promote tourism at home and abroad through its various initiatives and the launch of the upcoming Tourism Brand Pakistan will serve as a milestone in achieving major targets to open new avenues of tourism and project a soft image of Pakistan as a tourist destination.
Mishal and PTDC will also organize training for journalists on how to report on travel and tourism competitiveness-related data and the reforms undertaken by PTDC to promote tourism in Pakistan. Mishal will assist PTDC in creating international linkages with technology platforms that can generate influence around public discourse including META, Facebook, and Instagram. This interaction will create new approaches to tourism awareness. Mishal will create multiple categories around travel and tourism at the annual journalism AGAHI Awards. It will create opportunities for PTDC to work with industry players and the academic institutions, especially the mass communications/journalism departments to create short film/documentary competitions and festivals on various verticals of travel, tourism, and hospitality/generosity.
