ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: President Dr. Arif Alvi on Tuesday launched the commercial helicopter flight operations of Kashmir Air Private Limited in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) which would help further promote tourism in the region.
Kashmir Air is a private company which is going to start commercial helicopter flights to AJK and northern areas of Pakistan for the transportation of tourists.
The Prime Minister of AJK Sardar Tanveer Ilyas was also present on the occasion.
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President Dr. Arif Alvi addressing the launching ceremony of Kashmir Air (Pvt.) Ltd. and Unveiling of Projects at Bagh, AJK.
(25-October-2022)https://t.co/n9qL6tuGvb
— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) October 25, 2022
While addressing the launching ceremony of Kashmir Air at Bagh in AJK, the president said that Azad Jammu and Kashmir was blessed with immense natural beauty and tourism potential, and the private sector should come forward to develop AJK’s tourism sector to realize its fullest potential.
The president urged the AJK government to promote sustainable and environment-friendly tourism, besides evolving tourism-friendly policies for facilitating private-sector investment.
Dr. Arif Alvi said that tourism had become the mainstay of many developing economies in the world and was considered a prime source for earning foreign exchange, creating jobs, stimulating growth, and reducing economic disparities.
The president called for adopting an integrated approach to tourism planning in AJK, adding that a careful assessment of the economic, social, and environmental impacts of tourism on the region should be conducted, besides establishing linkages between stakeholders, businesses, resources and tourism activities.
The president said that Pakistan possessed enormous human resources in the form of youth and women, which with relevant skills and training could become an asset to the national economy in the future.
Furthermore, he urged the need to provide technical and vocational skills and training to AJK’s youth in the tourism and hospitality sector to provide gainful employment to youth, particularly women, in their own region.
The president said that the adoption of IT tools and Artificial intelligence could help in the development and promotion of the tourism sector in AJK to market AJK’s tourism assets as well as provide information, online booking facilities and tourism packages to domestic and foreign tourists.
President Arif Alvi said that the IT sector was akin to a “fast train”, that could help Pakistan achieve accelerated economic growth with little investment as compared to traditional brick-and-mortar dependent infrastructure development.
