PESHAWAR
The people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have welcomed millions of domestic as well as foreign tourists this year, Caretaker Minister Tourism Barrister Feroz Jamal Shah said here Saturday.
According to documental data available to this agency, unlike last year, the number of foreign tourists has decreased this year, probably due to financial crunch being faced by the people across world, however, the number of domestic tourists has increased this year, the data compiled by Police, Lives Officials, Official of the District Administration revealed.
This year 2546 foreigners visited various tourist places all across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and last year 2947 foreigners visited KP tourist places. This year 9.7 million people from all over the country visited Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in the year 2022, the number of domestic tourists was recorded as 88,59636.
Local and foreign tourists visited Galiyat, Dir Upper, Malam Jabba, Chitral, Upper and Lower and Kaghan and Naran.
Special measures are being taken for the security of domestic and foreign tourists, said Caretaker Minister Tourism Barrister Feroz Jamal Shah. Special bus service has also been started for the convenience of tourists, Barrister Feroz Jamal Shah. Initially bus service has been started for Khanpur Dam, Takhtbhai Ruins and Peshawar, Barrister Feroz Jamal Shah said. There is a plan to extend the bus service to more tourist spots, Barrister Feroz Jamal Shah told APP.
Giving complete data, he said 208 foreign tourists visited Dir Upper and Dir Lower, and 847, 5730 local tourists recorded in Dir Lower and Dir Upper, Malam Jabba 323 foreign, and 2,453, 310 local tourists, Galiyat 139 foreign, 2,882,337 local tourists, Chitral Upper 520 foreign, 31966 local, Chitral Lower 1090 foreign, and 402690 local, Kaghan and Naran 266 foreign and 3,080,412 local tourists recorded with an aggregated total 2, 546 foreign and 9, 704,325 local tourists.
The tourist influx data, he said, has recorded through Police Check Posts, Levies Check Posts, Assistant Commissioner’s Office and Field Assistant Directors of KDA and GDA from Jan 1 to Aug 28, 2023 while in the last year from Jan 1 to Dec 2022 a total of 2947 foreign and 8,859,536 local tourists recorded.
