PESHAWAR: The Kasabgar, a social enterprise, has launched ‘Re-think Peshawar’ project to boost the soft image of the walled city.

On the conclusion of four-day training of around 14 young men and women tour guides here on Tuesday, the body took a round trip of the city most famous heritage cites. The trained guides noted down brief history and made photographs of different heritage sites around the walled city of Peshawar.

Shafeeq Gigyani, a master-trainer, said that the basic objective of the project was to promote the pluralistic, peaceful and progressive image of the historic city. He said that Peshawar had lots of things to offer from tourist resorts and traditional foods to heritage sites.

He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was home of Buddhist civilisation and hub of cultural diversities. He said that Peshawar could earn a lot and could be showcased in the best of manner.

“We should try to attract foreign tourists while adopting innovative methods including social media and other digital means. The young tour guides took a round trip of Qissa Khwani Bazaar, houses of Bollywood heroes, Gantaghar and Gor Khatri city museum,” he said.

Tahira Kaleem, leading the initiative, told this scribe that the trained tour guides selected from Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda and Bannu were imparted training on tourism, tour guidance and marketing and communication skills.

She said that the young guides would be able to set up their own starts-up and would begin operating from next month.

Madiha, a resident of Peshawar and participant of the initiative, said that she learnt from the project regarding communication and marketing skills. She regretted that due to lack of awareness and skills, Peshawar city could not be presented to even domestic visitors let alone foreign tourists.

She said that she would launch her own start-up project to explain Peshawar, its people and their history to the visitors. She said that learning marketing skills was no longer an issue for her and her colleagues.

Suleman, another tour guide, said that if local residents didn’t know how to interact with outside people and market the best tourist sites, then how others could know about their precious assets and the country at large.

“I enjoyed the view and background history of the historic Masjid Mahabat Khan. I strongly believe that it is a beautiful image of the Mughal architecture. I am now in a better position to tell a lot about my city past glory, culture and history to the foreign tourists,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2018