 "Dholavira")
The construction of a road from Dhordo village to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Dholavira in Gujarat will give an economic boost to the region and encourage tourism in the area, a senior official said on Saturday.
Union Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh, during an interaction with the media here, also said that all the five key priority areas set for the deliberations during the first G20 Tourism Working Group meeting in the Runn of Kutch were "endorsed by all member countries, invitee countries and international organisations".
Over 100 G20 delegates from India and abroad attended the event in the pristine Runn of Kutch from February 7-9. On February 9, they also visited the Harappa-era Dholavira site.
The secretary said that another positive impact of the event is the construction of a road from Dhordo village to Dholavira heritage site which will give an economic boost to the region and encourage more tourism in that area.
During the G20 event, there was a consensus among the participating countries that the priorities set by India are in the right direction, Singh was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Tourism Ministry.
"The other constructive activity was information sharing of best practices at the side event on rural tourism where we saw participation from international organisations. There was also participation from India, some from the representatives of state governments and some also from the private sector," he said.
Singh said the visit to Dholavira was also "an eye-opener" as to how to take archaeological tourism forward.
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International experiences of Indonesia, Mexico, Spain, Unesco and other institutions like the Aga Khan Trust for Culture were shared at a side event on archaeological tourism that will prove useful, he said.
The members will draw the roadmap for further deliberations on the five priorities at the next working group meeting which will be held in April in Siliguri.
The members of the G20 countries, participants of invitee countries and representatives from four international organisations -- ILO, UNEP, WTO, ADB -- were present at the first tourism working group meeting of the G20, he added.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
