Punjab Tourism for Economic Growth

Pakistan’s tourism sector offers a wide-range of multi-cultural attractions from heritage sites to pristine natural beauty. However, the sector has not been able to garner adequate attention from tourists, despite Pakistan being the cheapest travel destination in the world. Currently, international tourism comprises 0.4% of Pakistan’s GDP, which creates a large space for developing and leveraging this sector to significantly contribute to Pakistan’s GDP. In order to harness the economic potential of this sector, a multi-sectoral approach is required to address the bottlenecks inhibiting the sector’s growth. These include targeted policy aimed to direct investment towards the renovation of dilapidated heritage sites and infrastructure to provide tourists safety and high quality accommodation and facilities. A tourism specific public-private partnership and better marketing strategies is essential to increase sector development competition, as well as to draw people to visit these places.

This study was funded by the World Bank (2016-17).

Key Output(s)

Report: Punjab Tourism for Economic Growth

Article: Unfulfilled Promise of Heritage Tourism