Prahlad Singh Patel virtually participates in the G20 Tourism Ministers’ Meeting held in Italy

The G20 Tourism Ministers’ Meeting is one of the ministerial meetings organised as part of the G20 Leaders’ Summit 2021 which was hosted by Italy in May 2021. The G20 2021 focussed on three broad interconnected pillars of action: People, Planet, and Prosp

Union Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (I/c), Prahlad Singh Patel virtually participated in G20 Tourism Ministers’ Meeting held in Italy on May 4, 2021. The Minister congratulated Massimo Garavaglia, Minister of Tourism, and Government of Italy for holding G20 Tourism Ministers’ Meeting in these difficult times and also thanked him for bringing together the member States for a dialogue to collaborate in protecting tourism businesses, jobs and taking initiatives to frame policy guidelines to support the sustainable and resilient recovery of travel and tourism.

Patel appreciated and supported the focus of the Italian G20 Presidency on recovery and ensuring new opportunities for People, Planet and Prosperity by putting in place guidelines on the seven key interrelated policy areas: Safe mobility, Crisis management, Resilience, Inclusiveness, Green transformation, Digital transition and Investment and infrastructure which are comprehensive and relevant for resilient, sustainable and inclusive tourism framed with the support of the OECD. He also conveyed India’s support for the principles for the transition to a green travel and tourism economy submitted by UNWTO as a further contribution to the policy area “Green Transformation” to embrace sustainability in tourism.

Patel also highlighted the initiatives taken by MOT to promote community-based tourism and rural tourism by involving the local population in employment opportunities and income generating activities through sustainable and responsible tourism. PostCOVID, the Ministry’s focus would be on promoting off-beat destinations and places such as nature and eco-tourism, wildlife, wellness retreats, mountaineering and trekking among others. Besides, India has a strong and vibrant system of traditional medicines, which provide for holistic healing. India would like to offer to the world, post COVID-19, calm, peace and health through Yoga, Ayurveda and other forms of traditional treatments and spiritual surroundings. The Minister expressed optimism that the tourism sector would fully recover from the impact of COVID-19 disruption and the sector will emerge stronger post COVID with the rollout of vaccination programs across the countries.