Islamabad: Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Zulfi Bukhari on Sunday (July 5) said that the government has decided to give the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation’s (PTDC) hotels and motels on a 30-year lease to private operators, a news source reported.
Earlier on July 3, the minister took to Twitter and revealed the government’s strategy regarding the future of the PTDC. He said that the government is not shutting the PTDC down but ‘making changes as a step towards structuring it, in accordance with the best global practices.’
According to the SAPM, the move was important as due political appointments and mismanagement of resources over time has made the oraganisation stagnant and stumble in loss. He further said that with the new structuring process in the pipeline, the ‘PTDC is finally on its way to become a more efficient organisation.’
Bukhari further negated the rumours that the government has terminated PTDC employees due to COVID-19 outbreak and said that the corporation’s hotels and motels will be leased out to private tour operators. He added that the country will have 46 three and four-star hotels in the next couple of years. He also mentioned that the PTDC hotels and motels incurred a loss of PKR 350 million in the last five years.
The minister also shared details on the ‘Brand Pakistan’ programme planned to be launched by the end of this year to promote tourism in Pakistan, under the devised policy for the next 10 years.
