Call to launch campaigns to promote tourism
By Hina Kiyani

ISLAMABAD—Ministry of Tourism has been urged to launch massive campaigns at home and abroad to promote immense potential of the country in its fascinating tourism sector.
“It’s only marketing that takes any product to the heights to glory, so we need to promote our tourism products to let the world know how enchanting our land is,” it was officially learnt on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Senate Standing Committee on Tourism, Sports and Culture suggested that Ministry of Tourism, in coordination with other Ministries likeForeign Affairs, Commerce, Interior and Information and Broadcasting should formulate a viable plan to thwart the baseless propaganda launched by some western countries and highlight Pakistan’s soft image abroad. The committee called for aggressively launching campaign to promote tourismand pursuing the National Marketing Strategy to achieve the objectives.
It was also suggested that tourism cells in Pakistani embassies/high commissions should be set up to remove these misperceptions. Tourism Ministry was asked to send delegations comprising public representatives, writers, media representatives and tour operators to foreign countries to highlight Pakistan’s true image and also invite writers, intellectuals and the journalists to give them a true picture of Pakistan. However, Ministry of Tourism, despite various constraints has successfully attracted the foreign as well as local investors to invest in the tourism sector and as a result of these efforts 22 major tourism projects were presently being undertaken.