Srinagar, 21 May: The G20 Tourism Working Group meeting here has the highest delegate participation and will be the most significant event held in Jammu and Kashmir, G20 Chief Coordinator Harshvardhan Shringla said on Sunday.
\n\u201cWe have the highest representation of foreign delegates in this working group meeting than the earlier two meetings. All I can say is we are very very happy with the turnout. We have the making of a unique meeting,\u201d Shringla told reporters here.
\nShringla was responding to a question about some member countries not registering for the working group meeting.
\nAccompanied by Jammu and Kashmir Chief secretary AK Mehta and the central government\u2019s Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh, he briefed the media about the itinerary of the three-day meeting that begins on Monday.
\nSrinagar will host the third G20 Tourism Working Group meeting from May 22-24. The first meeting was held in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat in February and the second one in West Bengal\u2019s Siliguri in April.
\nShringla said the working group meeting has the broader objectives to present India\u2019s rich and diverse cultural identity and promote the country\u2019s tourism potential to the world.
\n\u201cThe very idea is to use this meeting to bring attention to Jammu and Kashmir and how it can help revive handicrafts, etc. It is an opportunity to present our rich culture and heritage. No other working group does it better than the tourism group,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThis will be the most significant event in Jammu and Kashmir,\u201d Shringla added.
\nIndia is halfway through its G20 presidency and 118 meetings have been held in various parts of the country so far, the G20 chief coordinator said.
\n\u201cWe have hosted 118 meetings from the Rann of Kutch to Kohima and from Kanyakumari and now to Kashmir. There has been a sense of attachment everywhere and I have no doubt it is the same in Srinagar. (PTI)
\n\u201cAs we drive around Srinagar, we see a completely transformed city. Srinagar today is vastly more beautiful. (It has) better amenities. It is truly a smart city, which you would want to showcase to the world,\u201d he added.
\nAsked about the negative advisories issued by certain western countries about travel to Kashmir, Shringla said these mean nothing when foreign tourists are visiting the Valley despite such advice.
\n\u201cLast year, 1.88 crore tourists came to Jammu and Kashmir and a very large number of them were foreign tourists. Foreigners will come in and come in large numbers. At the end of the day, what do advisories mean? They mean nothing,\u201d he said.
\nShringla said the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to ensure that the message of India\u2019s G20 presidency is taken down to the grassroots level through the \u2018Jan Bhagidari\u2019 process and a lot of efforts have been made to sensitise the people of the country about the G20.
\nGiving details of the event, Tourism Secretary Singh said the stage is set for discussions and deliberations on final deliverables.
\n\u201cThere are two key deliverables of the Tourism Working Group, which include the GOA Roadmap for Tourism as a vehicle for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the G20 Tourism Ministers\u2019 Declaration,\u201d Singh said.
\nThe third Tourism Working Group meeting will deliberate on the five key priority areas \u2014 green tourism, digitalization, skills, MSMEs and destination management. These priorities are key building blocks for accelerating the transition of the tourism sector and achieving the targets for 2030 SDGs, he said.
\nA side event on \u2018Film Tourism for Economic Growth and Cultural Preservation\u2019 will be organised on May 22-23, focusing on strategies to promote film tourism in the Union Territory, Singh added.
\nThe event will witness the participation of G20 member countries, invited countries, international organisations and industry stakeholders.
\nSingh further said a draft \u2018National Strategy on Film Tourism\u2019 will be unveiled to provide a roadmap for harnessing the role of films in promoting tourist destinations. PTI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Srinagar, 21 May: The G20 Tourism Working Group meeting here has the highest delegate participation and will be the most significant event held in Jammu and Kashmir, G20 Chief Coordinator Harshvardhan Shringla said on Sunday. \u201cWe have the highest representation of foreign delegates in this working group meeting than the earlier two meetings. All I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-216739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}