Tourism Encourages Communities to Preserve Heritage

News Desk

Islamabad: Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) Managing Director Aftabur Rehman Rana has said that rural tourism encourages local communities to revive and preserve their traditions, crafts, traditional festivals, architecture, and other unique practices.

In a statement, he said that Pakistan is mainly a rural country and tourism can greatly contribute to the socio-economic development of our rural areas which are otherwise neglected in the overall development agenda of the government because usually more focused on the government’s schemes is on the development of urban areas.

Read More: https://thepenpk.com/gandhara-heritage-a-potential-for-religious-cultural-diplomacy-tourism/

He said that the promotion of rural tourism activities could help in strengthening the local, provincial and national economy and putting the country’s rural areas on the road to progress and development as tourism helps in the development of rural areas and in raising the living standards of host communities.

He said: “Recently, UNWTO has also launched the Best Tourism Villages initiative at the global level to advance the role of tourism in valuing and safeguarding rural areas along with their associated landscapes, knowledge systems, biological and cultural diversity, agriculture, forestry, livestock, and traditional cuisine”.