The meet will be the first major international event in J&K since August 2019, when the state was divided into two UTs and its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution was revoked…reports Asian Lite News
The third G20 tourism working group meeting under India’s presidency will be held in the Kashmir Valley between May 22 and 24. While deliberations during the three-day event will be held in Srinagar, officials said the foreign delegates will also be taken on a sightseeing tour to the ski resort of Gulmarg.
The Srinagar G20 meet will be the first major international event in Jammu and Kashmir since August 2019, when the state was divided into two UTs — J&K and Ladakh — and its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution was revoked.
Apart from G20 members, the event will see participation of delegates from guest countries and several international organisations. On the sidelines of the event, a major event will also be held to highlight film tourism, which the UT administration has been promoting in a big way in the last few years.
Officials said the idea of the film tourism event is to showcase film shoot offerings to the visiting delegates with a focus on single-window clearance and other facilities to foreign crews.
The first working group meeting on tourism, held at Rann of Kutch in Gujarat in February, highlighted rural tourism and archaeological tourism through excursions and side-events. The second meet, at Siliguri, West Bengal, from April 1 to 3, comprised a side event on adventure tourism in the region.
“All the participating countries have unanimously adopted Green Tourism as the most important priority,” said Union Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh, adding the discussions of the first two tourism working group meetings were progressing in the right direction and will be taken up during the third meeting as well before the drafting of the final ministerial communique.
The fourth meeting of the tourism track group, a ministerial event, will be held in Goa in June. Singh said that at the conclusion of the ministerial meeting in Goa, an official ‘Goa Roadmap’ will be issued, comprising a shared vision for the G20 tourism working group. It will aim to provide “guidance on policies, strategies and practices in the five key areas”.
An official said the idea behind holding the four tourism working group meets in four different corners of the country was “to cover and showcase the geographical expanse of the country – with Gujarat in the west to Siliguri in the north-east, going up till the northernmost regions”.
Meanwhile, ahead of the meeting in Srinagar, officials said adequate security arrangements have been made and the city is being spruced up to host the delegates. They said hotel staff, tour operators and emergency-service providers are also being sensitised.
While the G20 member countries comprise Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, Mexico, United Kingdom, United States and the European Union, India’s special invitee guest countries this time include Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and UAE.
Besides delegates from these countries, those representing international organisations such as UNWTO and International Labour Organisation are also expected to attend the Srinagar meet.
