G-20 delegates at a shop in the Polo View High Street Market in Srinagar on May 24, 2023.
| Photo Credit: NISSAR AHMAD

The government on Friday said the G-20 Tourism Working Group meet held in Srinagar earlier this week will boost tourism in Jammu and Kashmir and help in allaying any fears in the minds of future visitors.

In 2022, Jammu and Kashmir registered a record footfall of 1.88 crore domestic tourists, of which 26 lakh visited the Kashmir Valley. The number is expected to cross two crore this year, Union Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh said. Foreign tourist arrivals are also expected to grow, he added.

The senior official said that any place that hosted G-20 meet registered a jump in tourism. The successful organisation of the G-20 meet in Srinagar would also help in “allaying any fears” in the minds of visitors in future and dispel any unfavourable notions they might have had.

The third tourism working group meeting was held in Srinagar from May 22 to 24.

Under India’s G-20 Tourism Track, the Tourism Working Group is working on five inter-connected priority areas – green tourism, digitalisation, skills, tourism MSMEs and destination tourism. These priorities are key building blocks for accelerating the transition of the tourism sector and achieving the targets for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

In Srinagar, apart from the main conference, a side event on ‘Film Tourism for Economic Growth and Cultural Preservation’ was also organised focusing on strategies to promote film tourism. A draft ‘National Strategy on Film Tourism’ was also unveiled to provide a roadmap for harnessing the role of films in promoting tourist destinations during the Srinagar meet.

In Frames | Delegates explore Srinagar as part of G20 Tourism Working Group Meeting in Kashmir

Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha, Amitabh Kant, Union Minister of Tourism, G Kishan Reddy, Minister of State PMO Jitendra Singh, and other dignitaries during the 3rd G20 Tourism Working Group Meeting at Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC), in Srinagar on May 24.

Delegates attend the third G20 Tourism Working Group Meeting at Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC), in Srinagar. The previous two Working Group Meetings were held in Gujarat and West Bengal.

G20 delegates on a Shikara, a wooden boat famous for being the cultural symbol of Kashmir, in Dal Lake, Srinagar on May 22.

G20 Delegates at the historic Polo View Market, a pedestrian- oriented street shopping space at Srinagar on May 24.

Delegates at a handicraft shop in the Polo View Market of Srinagar on May 24. Kashmir is known for its rich history of handicrafts often done on Walnut wood, Papier-mâché and cloth.

G20 delegates take a look at Kashmir’s famous Pashmina Shawls, made from the wool of Changthangi, an exotic species of goats found in the cold, arid region surrounding Ladakh in Kashmir, at a shop in Polo View market, in Srinagar on May 24.

G20 delegates participate in a Yoga session as a part of G20 Tourism Working Group meeting at Kashmir Valley on May 24.

G20 Delegates pose for a photo wearing Phiran, the traditional attire worn by Kashmiri women at Nishat Bagh (Garden of Joy), a terraced Mughal garden built on the eastern side of the Dal Lake, as a part of the third Tourism Working Group meeting on May 24.

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