The Develop Potential of Tourism

OK,my last question, so the Belt and Road Initiative has only been initiated for four years, tourism development along the Belt and Road has just started, so what do you see the develop potential of tourism in the future? What are the opportunities and challenges for the tourism industry? Well,I think the potential is unlimited because one thing we know as people have great disposable income. The first two things they do is one buy a car, and secondly is travel. And you see this is well demonstrated in China over last years.

So people who love and need curiosity want to travel,another side to travel you need these three components, you need something there to attract you, you need to access and you need media to use when you are there. Now where the difficulty come is this I’ve always regarded tourism as a group point, if you can develop a tourism destination I don’t want to use with product, a destination and what happens. If it becomes successful, it begins grow because other investors are attracted in, because the perfect opportunities first of all. But secondly, because there exist next expertise, they have staff there you could import. You have advise with expertise.

So I think that one of the thing that has been developed in any of the counties is firstly a policy if you like a philosophy from government of what it wants to develop. So for example, some countries if you see no giving. While if you look at the Macau, it becomes center of the world. In some African countries there’s no giving but not for local people, so that might be issue, might be religion issue, it might be location issue, might be land utilization issue. So when you look at the development of that, the one of things you have to do is to give a clean signal we want to develop tourism.

If you can do that, it is a role which just play in China I have to say. But the role and that you should know the government shouldn’t do anything the privacy sector is willing unable to do, If you want to look at the example of this, if look at islands all over the world, most stay only on the islands running deficit and the subsidize is taxpayer, what private there like that is profit business. If you look at the history of Chinese will tell you development most locally own Chinese hotels recently were very unprofitable. Others in world because were driven by the private market, so whatever your views are.

I think it needs to be a very clear policy statement, that need to be what we called an enabling support from the government. It might be some stage. Although you’ve got the new infrastructure,this still might be you need to offer investment incentives to bring people in, you might be to offer incentives, for example on imports for developing hotel or restaurant. Certainly one big big issue facing developed and developing countries now is training. So all these things together are potentially limiting factors but are also opportunities. So you can see we have a positive view of tourism. This is type of tourism we want; this is type of tourism we don’t want, and we’re going to support the development in this.

And then grows the secondary policy issue of where you want make development. So it doesn’t have to be catchy for them all or openly, they could open a green gate in the area. These are local important decisions. A policy and tourism never far away, think about it, much of this investment is foreign, therefore I can go to invest in that country. I need permission of the government. I might need permission of the state bank. I can see my family come in and give you jobs. What improvement, if you like then one thing may be we already recognize as much we should,government has a very fundamental order to play in not only the tourism but the forms of development.

Only government can decide, for example tomorrow no visas or we go to withdraw visas from these countries, not from that country. So they have tremendous opportunity, but you have got to create an enabling environment, which you enable the tourism to grow and because the need for expertise, then very often you have do in conjunction with local and foreign partners very often. Believe the private sector to do cause the government is so much demand of its own resources. Why would we want to run a hotel? Does it make any sense? Thank you! And Professor Khan,what’s your view on this?

While Professor Jenkins has just briefly have shed light on different opportunities, for me I think that it will just come to the grass root to local level and even it will contribute to well-being of individual country. For example, if there is a fast trade between Pakistan and China, so it will help the local entrepreneurs to come to China and buy what they would like and just to send them to Pakistan. Because always Pakistan people who come to China and get the material that it costs so much time, but to this China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and fast train, so it will be very easy for local people, for local entrepreneurs to easily access to China, and then to supply those material.

Even they have getting another opportunity such as Gwadar Port, they would buy from China and give it to Pakistan, and then to send somewhere else. And when the infrastructure develop so the investor just attract to that place by themself. As I mentioned earlier that now different companies even around about 35 Chinese companies has signed hundreds of agreements with Pakistan as partners, and similarly there is also a signal from the UK,France and even different countries to Pakistan to invest in Pakistan. Well for me, the development is that the opportunities of that which help the local people, a common person.

What I think that B&R will help a common person to have better well-being that might be spiritually,materially well-being and may be even socially connect to the rest of the world. So social being, so this means that B&R just it is a mix of benefits, but with the passage of time it will show its faith and gradually people will feel how it contributing to their well-being. Thank you very much.