TravTalk India Online Magazine
G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and DoNER, recently addressed the ‘High-Level Political Forum 2023 – UN World Tourism Organization’, where he highlighted India’s commitment towards sustainable and green tourism.
TT Bureau
G Kishan Reddy, in his address at the UN Headquarters, said that India is creating a conducive environment for the tourism sector to contribute to economic growth, environmental protection and social well-being in a sustainable manner. “India is actively advancing Sustainable Development Goals through tourism, implementing various activities and strategies,” he said.
During the session, he informed that India has launched a national strategy for sustainable tourism, and that there are seven key pillars under the strategy which focus on promoting environment, economic and socio-cultural sustainability, protecting biodiversity and creating awareness through skill evelopment and entrepreneurship training. “MOT has launched the ‘Travel for LiFE’ programme to promote sustainable tourism in the country, which is developed to bring large-scale behavioural change among tourists and tourism businesses, which will have a significant impact on environmental protection and climate action. The programme holds tremendous significance for promoting India’s G20 priority of Green Tourism under the Tourism Working Group,” he said.
Also, he insisted that India is working towards enhancing connectivity to important tourist destinations. “MOT is collaborating with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and other ministries in the country as a ‘whole-of-government approach’. Such initiatives have resulted in the operationalisation of tourism routes, facilitating easier access to iconic sites and boosting tourism in those regions.”
Informing that under India’s G20 Presidency, five interconnected priority areas in the tourism sector have been identified, he said that they are the key building blocks for enhancing the tourism sector and achieving the targets for 2030 SDGs. “The Goa Roadmap for tourism as a vehicle for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is a pioneering global effort towards developing the tourism sector through the lens of sustainable development goals,”
he claimed.
Reddy added, “A notable feature of the G20 Indian Presidency 2023 Goa Roadmap is its commitment to promoting collaboration and engagement to leverage activities to position the tourism sector as a leader in collective progress towards the SDGs.”
Also, he said, in line with the digitisation drive, India is leveraging technology to empower the hospitality and tourism industry. “These ‘comprehensive efforts’ by the GoI reflects its commitment to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals through tourism by focusing on sustainable practices, infrastructure development, enhanced connectivity, green transport and digitalisation,” he averred.
G20 Tourism Working Group Priority Areas
On the road to progressing the SDGs, India’s G20 Presidency has identified five priority areas for the Tourism Working Group (TWG) where the tourism sector can lead in making important contributions.
- Green Tourism: Greening the tourism sector for a sustainable, responsible and resilient tourism sector
- Digitalisation: Harnessing the power of digitalisation to promote competitiveness, inclusion and sustainability in the tourism sector
- Skills: Empowering youth with skills for jobs and entrepreneurship in the tourism sector
- Tourism micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs): Nurturing tourism MSMEs, startups and private sector to unleash innovation and dynamism in the tourism sector; and
- Destination Management: Rethinking the strategic management of destinations towards a holistic approach that delivers on the SDGs
