Ministerial communique to be finalised at G20 Tourism Working Group meet in Srinagar: Tourism secretary

Jaipur: The third G20 Tourism Working Group meeting to be held in Srinagar in May will be a significant one as the ministerial communique that will be issued after the last TWG meeting in Goa will be finalised there, Union Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh has said.

Singh said this during his address at the inaugural ceremony of the three-day Great India Tourism Bazaar in Jaipur on Sunday.

"We are in the middle of India's G20 presidency period and two Tourism Working Group meetings have taken place so far. The first one in the Rann of Kutch, followed by the second one in Siliguri. The third Tourism Working Group meeting will take place next month, from May 22 to 24," he said.

The tourism secretary said this TWG meeting in Jammu and Kashmir will be an important one, because there "we will finalise the Goa declaration", which will be the ministerial communique that will emerge from the G20 discussions.

"We are hopeful that the G20 tourism ministers' conference in Goa due later this year will focus on sustainable tourism to support the environment and create opportunities for local businesses," he said.

After the last TWG meet, the ministerial meet will take place in Goa in June.

A roadmap and an action plan for tourism as a vehicle for achieving sustainable development goals and a ministerial communique endorsing it will be released after the last meeting of the G20 Tourism Working Group in Goa in June, a senior tourism ministry official had earlier said.

"There will be two key deliverables. At the end of our working group meetings and the ministerial meeting, we are going to declare a Goa Roadmap and Action Plan for tourism as a vehicle for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs)," he had said.

"There are five priorities and building on them, we are going to look at the tourism sector's role in accelerating the achievement of SDGs," the official had said, adding that there will be a "ministerial communique" that will be released at the end of the TWG and other deliberations, which will endorse the Goa roadmap.

There are five key priority areas so far as the G20 tourism track meetings are concerned -- greening of the tourism sector, harnessing the power of digitalisation, empowering youngsters with skills, nurturing tourism MSMEs, startups and the private sector, and rethinking the strategic management of destinations, officials said.

In his address at the G20 Tourism Expo earlier on Sunday, Singh said of the more than 200 events to be held across the country during its G20 presidency, about 100 have already taken place.

Under India's G20 presidency, the tourism sector is providing an "unparalleled opportunity" to highlight the country's tourism offerings and share its success stories on the global stage, he said.

Later, interacting with reporters on the sidelines of the event, Singh shared more details about the third TWG meeting slated to be held in the Kashmir valley.

This will be the first major international event that will be held in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019.

"The Tourism Working Group meeting will be held in Srinagar. A team from the tourism ministry and the G20 secretariat is currently in Jammu and Kashmir to assess the preparedness that will be needed to host the event in May," Singh told PTI.

About 100 international delegates and 50-100 Indian members will take part in the event in Jammu.

"In Srinagar, the delegates will be taken on a shikara ride in the Dal lake and will also be treated to cultural programmes at the Sher-e-Kashmir Convention Centre. Later, they will go to Gulmarg where they will take a gondola ride," Singh said.

In Gulmarg, there will also be a technical session on the promotion of film tourism, he added.

Representatives of various states, the film industry, producers and others will be there and those from the states will share information about their film tourism policies, Singh said.

India is currently chairing the influential bloc and more than 200 meetings will be held across 55 locations, culminating with the annual G20 summit on September 9-10.