Pakistan declares 2007 as Year of Tourism

ISLAMABAD, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has approved a marketing strategy to realize Pakistan's tourism potential, which aims at promoting the country's unique products to specific markets in an efficient manner, private Geo TV in Islamabad reported on Friday.

He declared 2007 as the Year of Tourism in a meeting at the Prime Minister House and said that his government was determined to leverage the country's vast potential of tourism, which was why it had introduced a liberal visa policy.

Aziz said that there was need to tap into the potential of tourism as its ancillary effect leads to creating economic activity and jobs and earning foreign exchange.

Tourism also helps improve the image of the country, as tourists are able to get first hand impression about the country, he added.

In the meeting, the tourism secretary made a detailed presentation on the tourism marketing plan.

In the first phase Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada and Scandinavian are set as immediate target.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Singapore, China's Taiwan, Britain and other European countries and regions will be the target markets in the second phase.

The Pakistani tourism marketing strategy aims to focus on the unique selling points of Pakistan, including historical and world heritage sites, world class climbing and hiking areas, sacred religious sites of significance to Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Buddhists as well as nice markets covering sports tourism and eco tourism.

Source: Xinhua