Private sector should invest in Balochistan’s tourism, says CM Jam Kamal
Statesman Report
KARACHI: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani on Monday said that the private sector should work on promoting tourism in the province.
Speaking at the Balochistan Tourism Seminar in Karachi on Monday, Alyani said there was a need for building people's trust when it came to visiting Pakistan in general and Balochistan in particular.
"We need to tell people that Balochistan is safe. Often, people who are hesitant to visit Quetta say that they found it to be quite different than their perception," the Balochistan CM said. "The private sector needs to step in and work in this area," he said while adding that there were increasingly high returns on investment in Balochistan.
"There has been a lot of investment in the textile sector recently, but the tourism sector is greatly neglected and there is need for money to be injected into it," he said.
The CM's comments come after Pakistan recently made it to The Not Hot List: 10 Best Under-the-Radar Trips for 2020 list by Forbes.
The international publication wrote, "Closed countries are opening up. Savvy luxury agencies are making remote destinations accessible to travellers who don’t want to rough it or risk much."
The list features other countries such as Armenia, Chad, Eritrea, Guatemala, Mongolia and Saudi Arabia as well.
The criterion for making it to the list was based on a newly discovered but essential need of many modern tourists: “Where can we go to avoid other tourists?”
The magazine points out that many travel agencies and local tour guides "have learned to bring less obvious, undertouristed places to life in a way that yields the kind of insights you might expect from their overtouristed equivalents."