Sunday August 2, 2015
Kabul (BNA) As a historical and ancient province of Afghanistan, Bamyan contains good touristic grounds interesting for the world tourists.
This central province of Afghanistan which was once the itinerary of commercial caravans along the ancient silk route, was recently announced and recognized as the cultural capital of SAARC 2015 and resumed its position in the touristic map of the world of tourism. Head of Bamyan provincial department of information and culture Kabir Dadras said, “Since Bamyan was recognized in June 2014 as the cultural capital of SAARC, the rush of tourists from Helmand. Kandahar, Parwan, Kapisa, Panjsher as well as China, Korea, Japan and other countries increased.” Dadras went on to say, only issue that has unfortunately astonished as was highways leading to Bamyan via Parwan and Wardak, were insecure and tourists feared to travel to Bamyan. But fortunately during the Eid holydays, these two highways were safe and secure and more tourists visited Bamyan.
Talking on their future program, Dadras added, “Since now Bamyan is the cultural capital of SAARC, in August 2015 we plan to organize certain events including Festival of SAARC Food, exhibition of handicrafts, films, local games, theater, SAARC Artist camp and the festival of Silk Route,” he added. Dadras added, “In the honor of SAARC cultural capital, we plan to screen documental films for people and tourists in which current traditions of south Asian countries, their handicrafts will be displayed. Common foods of SAARC member countries will be available and served during the festival. In the SAARC Artist Camp a team of seven or eight SAARC countries will be invited and attended. We will display for two days the paintings and drawings of natural beauties of cultural heritages for tourists and invitees. We hope local Afghan Air Lines like Afghan Jet would start their fights to Bamyan and increase the number of tourists.
Dadras said, the festival of Silk Route will be simultaneously organized which includes local games, theatre etc. certain facilities and accommodations including luxurious hotel, entertainment places have been established for tourists and reliable security is available in Bamyan now. During spring and summer seasons, Bamyan will be hosting more tourists and during winter season, Ski games will be organized to welcome more foreign tourists. Dadras said for attracting of tourists we plan to display important and basic program that includes screening of Buddha Film that was gifted by a Chinese couple for Bamyan which is a unique thing at universal level. This film will be screened every week. We also plan to launch vast and extensive propagation by audio-visual media, publish pamphlets and install them on certain places and digitalize our website to facilities tourists’ access to Bamyan. Direct flight from other provinces and foreign countries to Bamyan is an urgent need for example from India and Dubai. Dadras explained, usually flights take place to Bamyan during night and expense of one way flight costs US $100, is a major problem. Karima Malikzada
