TBM Staff - Mumbai In keeping with India’s G20 Presidency and on-going meetings of G20 countries, the Ministry of Tourism is set to host the G20 Tourism Expo in Jaipur, Rajasthan from April 23 to 25, 2023.
The G20 Tourism Expo is being organised simultaneously with the 12th edition of Great Indian Travel Bazaar (GITB). GITB is co-organized by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India along with Department of Tourism, Government of Rajasthan and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The special G20 Tourism Expo will include panel discussions, ambassadors’ roundtable, cultural eventing, game of golf and other programmes.
The inaugural session of G20 Tourism Expo will be addressed by India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant and Arvind Singh, Secretary Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.
In a special arrangement, the foreign tour operators (FTOs) from G20 nations will be travelling on ‘The Palace on Wheels’ from New Delhi to Jaipur on April 22.
Being held after a gap of three years, GITB will witness over 11,000 B2B meetings of 283 tour operators from 56 countries, including 150+ from G20 countries, with the representatives of Tourism Boards from 11 states namely – Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, apart from Rajasthan along with more than 290 Indian Exhibitors.
Being attended by the stalwarts of tourism, travel and hospitality sector of India, the event will witness some of the leading names of governance, policy-making and industry coming together on one platform to deliberate on the future of India’s travel and tourism industry.
The eminent speakers slated to address the event include Vishvendra Singh, Hon’ble Minister of Tourism, Government of Rajasthan; Murari Lal Meena, Hon’ble Minister (state) of Tourism, Government of Rajasthan; Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa; Usha Sharma, Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan; Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India; Gayatri Rathore, Principal Secretary- Tourism, Art & Culture, Government of Rajasthan and Dipak Deva, Chairperson, FICCI Tourism & Culture Committee among others.
Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, said, “The G20 Presidency has provided India a strong platform to promote its vision of sustainable/green tourism. The GoI is working with G20 countries to promote five areas – digitalization, promotion of MSMEs, skilling of people, destination management and promotion of waste management which are essential to aid the growth of tourism sector. We hope G20 Tourism Expo, along with GITB will provide further boost to the tourism sector to regain the momentum and further build on the same to achieve India’s sustainable/green tourism vision.”
Terming the event as the trailblazer, Gayatri Rathore, Principal Secretary – Tourism, Art & Culture of Rajasthan Government, said, “The State Government has taken bold and visionary steps to promote tourism and hospitality. In the past year, a whopping 381 MoU’s/LoI’s were signed which will generate an investment of INR 14,146 crores creating an employment for 61,054 persons. The State budget of 23 -24 is also encouraging for investment as rationalisation of DLC rates and concessions on stamp duty have been announced INR 1,500 crore allocation for promotion of tourism. I’m sure this event will add to the strengths of our efforts.”
Excited over the encouraging response received from the industry and foreign participants, including from G20 nations, MDipak Deva, Chairperson, FICCI Tourism & Culture Committee said, “The tourism industry has endured a lot of hardships due to Covid, but that is behind us now. From just 1.52 million Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in 2021, India recorded 6.19 million FTAs in 2022, registering a massive four-fold increase. We hope to keep the momentum and are aiming at 11 million FTAs, that is where we were in 2019. GITB will play an important role in that objective.”
A knowledge paper on inbound tourism will also be released during the inaugural session of the mega event.
Entry to both G20 Tourism Expo and GITB 2023 is restricted to registered Foreign Buyers and Indian Exhibitors only.
The premier tourism event is supported by leading national and regional associations like Hotel & Restaurant Association of Rajasthan (HRAR), Indian Heritage Hotels Association (IHHA) and Rajasthan Association of Tour Operators (RATO).
