Hailing India as the "mother of democracy" and ancient land of spirituality, Union minister G Kishan Reddy on Tuesday urged the global community to work together to build a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient tourism sector.
In his address at the inaugural session of the fourth G20 Tourism Working Group (TWG) Meeting here, he said after the Covid-19 pandemic, foreign tourist arrivals in India have increased.
"India's inbound travel is expected to reach to pre-pandemic level in 2023," he asserted.
Reddy hailed India as the "mother of democracy" and a land blessed with ancient cultural heritage and spirituality, with more than 50 Shakti Peethas that worship feminine divinity.
India is currently chairing the G20, and "mother of democracy" and "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam", are also one of the key taglines used by the central government in its posters and other visuals means of communication on it.
"For ages, people have been travelling to India on a journey of spirituality and self-discovery. The spiritual experience of India is being conveyed to the world through a large number of spiritual organisations like ISKCON, Art of Living Foundation, Isha Foundation and Brahma Kumaris," he said.
Reddy also underlined that India is the birthplace of Sikhism that espouses brotherhood and equality, as also its spiritual centres like the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
India is also the birthplace of Jainism and Buddhism and its centres tell people globally the principles they espoused, he added.
At the end of the fourth Tourism Working Group Meeting and the G20 Tourism Ministerial Meeting, a Goa Roadmap and Action Plan and a ministerial communique endorsing the roadmap will be issued.
The minister said from the last three Tourism Working Group meetings, "insightful discussions, thought-provoking and positive decisions" have emerged, which will be deliberated upon in the fourth and final meeting in Goa.
Reddy said the outcomes of the two meetings aim to lend support towards building a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient tourism sector.
The Roadmap and the communique are in line with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030.
"Friends, let us work together in bridging the gap between public and private leaders and building a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient tourism sector in future," he said.
Tourism ministry officials reiterated that these two documents will be key deliverables after the Goa meeting.
"At the end of our working group meeting 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)," a senior official said.
Under India's G20 Tourism Track, the TWG is working on five inter-connected priority areas — green tourism, digitisation, skills, tourism MSMEs and destination.
These priorities are key building blocks for accelerating the transition of the tourism sector and achieving the targets for 2030 SDGs.
Also, a "ministerial communique" will be released at the end of the tourism working group and other deliberations that will endorse the Goa roadmap.
The first Tourism Working Group Meeting of the G20 was held at Runn of Kutch in Gujarat followed by the second one at Siliguri and Darjeeling in West Bengal, and the third one was hosted in Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.