The GCC Ministerial Committee for Culture and Tourism held the 2nd joint meeting on Thursday, 10 October 2019, in Muscat, Oman. The meeting was chaired by, HE Ahmed bin Nasser Hamad Al Mahrizi, Minister of Tourism of the Sultanate of Oman, Chairman of the current session and the participation of the GCC Ministers of Culture and Tourism and the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani.
In his opening speech, HE Minister of Tourism of the Sultanate of Oman said that the initiative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia adopted by HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud focuses on enhancing cooperation between the two sectors through the convergence of tourism and culture elements to enhance cooperation and integration and come up with programs between them at various levels. He pointed to the need to continue to activate the aspects of this initiative through the creation of programs and activities capable of promoting cultural tourism.
He added that the UNESCO statistics indicate that cultural tourism accounts for 40% of global tourism income, so cultural tourism has become of great importance in terms of economic and cultural societies. He pointed out that this meeting comes to enhance cooperation through the exchange of experiences and practices to harmonize policies and implementation mechanisms in order to accelerate the transition towards sustainable development of cultural tourism, and strengthen cooperation between the public and private sectors on one hand and the tripartite cooperation between tourism, culture and society on the other hand.
The meeting discussed issues related to strengthening the joint coordination between officials in the culture and tourism sectors to enhance cooperation and integration in various fields.