ISLAMABAD: Managing Director Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) PTDC, Aftab ur Rehman Rana has said that PTDC and Agriculture Tourism Development Corporation of Pakistan (ATDCP) has selected 10 villages across the country as a model rural tourism destinations in Pakistan. He said that PTDC has placed these villages on the map of UNWTO’s best tourist villages. In a statement, he said that recently, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has also launched the Global Best Tourism Village initiative to promote the role of tourism in the value and protection of rural villages as well as the landscapes associated with them. Aftab said the promotion of rural tourism activities could help strengthen the local, provincial and national economy and put the country’s rural areas on the path of development. “Pakistan is mainly a rural country and tourism can greatly contribute to the socio-economic development of our rural areas which are otherwise neglected in the overall development agenda of government because usually more focus of government’s schemes is on the development of urban areas”, he added. He said that rural tourism encourages local communities to revive and preserve their traditions, crafts, traditional festivals, architecture, and other unique practices.