Venue: Conference Hall, CDPR

Date:4th Aug 2017, Friday

Time: 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Consortium for Development Policy Research (CDPR) hosted its fourteenth Lahore Policy Exchange talk on “Tourism: Pakistan’s Untapped Billion Dollar Industry.” Millennia of different empires, cultures, and religions occupying what is today Pakistan have endowed the country with a multitude of heritage sites. In theory, this would put Pakistan in a strong position vis-à-vis global tourism. But under-investment in hospitality and security risks have kept tourists away. If tourism expands to contribute 1{5fae829be7f2ac2fe240ef3893666b371329fe804754bc76382cc5045395a053} to GDP, for example, tourism receipts could expand from US$ 1 billion to US$ 2.5 billion. Ongoing research has identified the actions Pakistan can take now to start meeting that potential. To discuss the impact of tourism on Pakistan’s economy, two panelists spoke at the event: Turab Hussain (Associate Professor of Economics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences) and Qasim Jafri (Chief Executive Officer at Imperium Hospitality). Suleman Ghani, senior policy adviser and former government official, moderated the discussion. Policy exchange dialogue took place at the end, when the question and answer session took place amongst the audience and the presenters.