The rest houses of Pakistan Post, opened by the government for general public across the country last month, have witnessed 100 percent booking during the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays due to affordable rates and improved facilities for tourists.
"The rest houses witnessed 100 percent booking during the Eid days with 90 percent advance booking for remaining days of the month," official sources in the Pakistan Post said here Friday.
The strategy, the sources, adopted by Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed, which was in line with Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision to ensure better utilization of state buildings and promote tourism in the country, had worked as hundreds of thousands of rupees would be deposited in the national exchequer earned through the rented rest houses during the Eid days.
With this initiative, they said, official expenditures on the government rest houses had come to an end as the facilities had started generating income.
They said a number of tourists had preferred to stay in government rest houses instead of hiring rooms in costly hotels. The citizens had widely hailed the initiative of opening rest houses by the Ministry of Postal Services, they added.
Under the initiative, the sources said, the citizens could stay at the rest houses along with their families at reasonable charges from Rs 1,200 to Rs 3,000 per day.
They said the citizens were happy to get the facility of cost-effective and luxurious residential facilities at the government rest houses from Karachi to Kashmir. Meanwhile, the tourists staying in different rest houses appreciated the Ministry of Postal Services for opening its rests houses under the prime minister's vision to provide inexpensive residential facilities to the people to promote tourism.
A jubilant tourist, staying in the Nathiagali rest house along with his family, appreciated the government initiative for opening the rest houses for general public, enabling them to enjoy improved residential facilities across the country.
He said he had paid Rs 3,000 and was staying the rest house equipped with the latest facilities, which were not possible in other hotels at the same charges.
Welcoming the initiative, another tourist said the facility should be on permanent basis and asked to launch a special drive by the government to inform the public about the availability of government rest houses at nominal rates.
On May 18, the Pakistan Post had announced to open its 41 rest houses, located at scenic locations, for domestic and foreign tourists at remarkably low prices. The postal rest houses had been divided into three categories.
Rs 3,000 per day are charged under the category 'A' rest houses located in Karachi, Multan, Jhelum, Mianwali, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Nathia Gali, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shadman Lahore, Lahore Cantt, Sialkot General Post Office (GPO), Sialkot Cantt, Faislabad GPO and Quetta.
Comments
Comments are closed.