This was decided today during the session of 2nd Ministerial Meeting on Tourism Cooperation at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where the Pakistani delegation is currently being headed by Special Assistant to PM on Overseas Pakistanis, HRD & Tourism Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari.
The current session is focusing on developing a new tourism development agenda for D-8 countries. The D-8 focuses on inculcating methods to promote halal tourism increasing eco-friendly & sustainable practices in tourism based on Islamic values. The delegates stated that it is imperative for the D-8 members to remain active, further enhance collaboration and adopt innovative solutions in efforts to unlock greater value for the sustainability and continued progress of the tourism industry.
The D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, also known as Developing-8, is an organisation for development co-operation comprising of: Pakistan, Malaysia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia and Iran.
The potential of tourism among these 8 countries is estimated to be over a trillion USD. This conference being hosted by Pakistan is a BIG BREAKTHROUGH in ensuring that Pakistan’s tourism development will be put on fast track in an organic fashion along with some of the fastest growing countries in this area. This will greatly help Pakistan promote its culture among other developing countries.
Here this should be kept in mind that this is the first time tourism activities are being taken up by Pakistan at this scale. This has resulted from the new national tourism policy put in place by PM Imran Khan after taking office. The National Tourism Coordination Board was constituted in beginning of 2019 to promote Tourism activities in Pakistan on the global stage and play the role of a coordinating body among provinces since tourism is a subject devolved to provinces. SAPM on Overseas Pakistanis & HRD Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari was given additional responsibility of chairing NTCB which reports directly to PM Imran Khan.
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