PESHAWAR: The Tourism Corporation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP) has completed consultations and by end of this month it would submit the province`s tourism policy to the cabinet for approval.

According to a press release issued by TCKP, a meeting was held to discuss the tourism policy that hadbeeninthe pipelineforlastone and a half years.

The policy would be submitted to the cabinet at the end of this month.

The tourism policy became theneed of the hour after the 18th amendment.

The meeting held here on Friday at TCKP was attended by the secretary tourism and youth affairs department Aftab Akbar Durrani, TCKP MD Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, former tourism minister Syed Agil Shah, Aftab Rana, Akbar Zeb Swati, Zahoor Durrani and others.

About 200 stakeholders have participated in preparation of the draf t policy and shared their views in the whole process, through consultation sessions held across the province, said the statement.

Aftab Rana, one of the consultants, said that according to the World Economic Forum, Pakistan was ranked 113 of 133 countries. He said that the annual economic impact of tourism in Pakistan was approximately Rs12 billion.

According to the draft of the tourism policy, there are seven com-ponents of tourism, including attractions like the flora and fauna, landscape, accessibility (roads, etc), accommodation (hotels, youth hostels, etc), activities (e.g. to keep the people engaged), amenities (phone, bank, hospitals, etc), laws that regularise the system to increase the quality services and actorslike stakeholders.

During the meeting it was stressed that the KP`s domestic market was very strong, for which a positive image of the province should be promoted.

Speaking at the meeting, the secretary tourism said that balance in tourism was a must as it affected both positively and negatively the cultural and economical aspects of a place.

That is why it is required to optimise the positive effects and eliminate the negative ones.

Agil Shah raised the issue of bedtax that all hoteliers had to pay even when the rooms were not used.

This was especially unfair for the hotels in Chitral, Kaghan and Naran, which had seasonal tourists.

It was suggested that new destinations should be opened for tourists, especially as the province had a `lake district` in Swat, which included five beautiful lakes. It was proposed that the government should preserve them and allow only pony rides to the lakes to eliminate pollution.

The government should initiate plans lil(e inter-cultural programmes where foreign tourists would stay at local houses in Pakistan rather than in hotels, etc.

This would play a big role in community development and promoting the softer image of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said the participants at the consultation, which finalised the draft policy.