2nd IORA Tourism Ministers’ Meeting for the Establishment of the IORA Core Group on Tourism

The forthcoming Meeting comes after the successful hosting of the IORA Workshop on Coastal and Marine Tourism, and the 3rd IORA Tourism Experts Meeting held in May 2018 in Durban, on the margins of the 2018 Africa Travel Indaba.

As an ocean-based community, IORA places great value and a high commitment on the development and sustainable use of the ocean for economic development and the overall wellbeing of all its people, especially the well being of coastal communities of IORA Member States. The first IORA Leaders’ Summit of Heads of State and/or Government was held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 5-7 March 2017 to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of IORA.  The “Jakarta Concord” committed the IORA Member States to “fostering tourism and cultural exchanges by:

• Increasing people-to-people interaction to promote regional economic growth;
• Encouraging the sustainable development of community-based tourism and eco-tourism;
• Promoting cultural heritage and harnessing the economic potential of this heritage, including World Heritage properties and sites;
• Cooperating and sharing experiences for the sustainable development of tourism; and
• Augmenting regional connectivity by encouraging direct flights and shipping services including cruises by encouraging investment in requisite infrastructure.

To give effect to the commitments under the Jakarta Concord, the IORA Council of Ministers (COM) adopted the IORA Action Plan (2017 – 2021) as a firm set of realistic and measurable commitments to take IORA forward, including:

• The establishment of a Core Group for Tourism (short term);
• Conduct feasibility studies to explore the potential of cruise tourism and to establish an IORA Tourism Resource Centre and Website in the Sultanate of Oman (medium term); and
• Develop joint capacity building projects in tourism including community-based tourism for poverty reduction, cultural heritage and eco-tourism.

The 2nd IORA Tourism Ministerial Meeting will endorse the Terms of Reference (ToR) and the Workplan of the Tourism Core Group to be submitted to the IORA Council of Ministers in November. 

The Ministerial meeting will be preceded by a meeting of IORA Tourism Senior Officials who will clear the agenda for the Ministers with respect to the ToR and other key tourism issues within IORA. The meetings will be conducted as per the IORA Rules of Procedure, with Dialogue Partners encouraged to participate actively.