PAKISTAN TO FOCUS ON SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT TO ENHANCE TRAVEL AND TOURISM COMPETITIVENESSCategory: Travel & Holidays
Article added by: Amir Jahangir
The World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008 (TTCR) highlights the competitive advantages and disadvantages in Pakistan’s tourism and reinforces the importance of Environmental Sustainability.
The World Economic Forum launched its annual Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report on March 4th, 2008. The report provides a cross-country analysis of the drivers of competitiveness in travel and tourism, providing useful comparative information for making business decisions and additional value to governments wishing to improve their travel and tourism environments.
Pakistan has been ranked at 103 out of 124 countries around the world, underlining a frail Travel & Tourism regulatory framework, low prioritization of the industry by the Government, low effectiveness of marketing and branding and a constricted tourism perception. Some of the other competitive disadvantages for Pakistan include the poor tourism infrastructure such as provision of competitive hotel rooms (110), available ATMs accepting Visa cards (110), the national and cultural resources (96) and the prevailing security situation (106) among 124 countries.
Despite showing many competitive disadvantages in the Travel & Tourism industry, Pakistan ranked well on the air (40) and ground transport infrastructure (39). The price competitiveness in the industry maintains a very viable position based on the low fuel price level (23), purchasing power parity (25) and the extent and effect of taxation (33). Pakistan will however, like many other countries need to focus on the sustainability of its natural environment.
The data for Pakistan has been prepared based on a combination of data from publicly available sources, international Travel & Tourism institutions and experts as well as the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, which was carried out last year by the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) in Pakistan.
Arthur Bayhan, Chief Executive Officer of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) shared that CSF, being the partner institution of the WEF in Pakistan, is deeply engaged in the issues of competitiveness and is working with both the public and private sector as well as the academia in Pakistan to improve the global ranking of the country. Bayhan shared that the Executive Opinion Survey is a major component of The Global Competitiveness Report, which is published each year by the WEF. The survey provides the key component that turns the report into a representative annual measure of Pakistan’s economic environment and its ability to achieve sustained growth. Top level business executives operating in Pakistan are surveyed to capture their opinion on the business environment in which they operate.
CSF further shared that it is currently working on preparing the second State of Pakistan’s Competitiveness Report for 2007-08. This report is a deeper reflection of the Global Competitiveness Report and will provide a snapshot of the strengths and weaknesses along with key positive and negative trends in the national economy, as well as regional competitiveness trends in each of the provinces.
The report elaborates that Switzerland, Austria and Germany have been ranked as the most attractive environments for developing the travel and tourism industry. The report helps Pakistan in measuring the factors that contribute to developing the T&T industry and also demonstrates the importance of supportive business and regulatory frameworks, coupled with world-class transport and tourism infrastructure with a strong focus on developing human and natural resources.
The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) measures the factors and policies that make it attractive to develop the T&T sector in the various countries. It is composed of 14 pillars of travel and tourism competitiveness: 1. Policy rules and regulations, 2. Environmental sustainability, 3. Safety & Security, 4. Health & hygiene, 5. Prioritization of travel and tourism, 6. Air transport infrastructure, 7. Ground transport infrastructure, 8. Tourism infrastructure, 9. Information and Communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, 10. Price competitiveness, 11. Human capital, 12. Affinity for travel and tourism, 13. Natural resources, 14. Cultural resources
The Competitiveness Support Fund is a joint initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan to reposition Pakistan’s economy on a more competitive global footing.
Support for CSF is part of the $ 1.5 billion in aid that the US Government is providing to Pakistan over five years to improve economic growth, education, health and governance.
Posted By: Amir Jahangir
Web: http://www.competitiveness.org.pk
Contact: e-mail
| About the Author: |
| Amir Jahangir is a strategic communication and media professional with over 15 years of experience with leading communications and media organizations. He is currently associated with the Competitiveness Support Fund, as a consultant on media and communication. He is also working on a medium- to long-term media development strategy for Pakistan as the incharge for the Innovation Journalism Program for Pakistan, a program in collaboration with the Stanford University on Innovation Journalism. He is the strategic communication consultant to various other initiatives on economic and strategic development for competitiveness and innovation.
Amir is also the Founder and Chief Strategy Officer for Mishal (Pvt.) Limited. Mishal was launched to fulfill the need for media consultancy in Pakistan, keeping in view various industry developments requiring strategic media communication including content strategy, marketing, human resource development and technical needs of the media industry.
Most recently, he was on the forefront of the media industry in Pakistan as the Chief Executive Officer of Television Business Production Limited, the leading production company for business and economic news programs in the country. He was also responsible for the strategic planning, content management and operations management, as the CEO and board member of the Vision Network Television Limited, which has recently launched the first internationally branded business and economic news channel CNBC Pakistan. Amir has been associated with various research and consultancy firms for research and analysis on various sectors including telecom, media, information communication technology and other socio-economic issues.
On the personal front, Amir has been married for over four years and resides in central Islamabad. While his work involves extensive traveling, which has now become his passion; he also makes time for classical music, poetry and books. |
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