The 2nd D-8 Tourism Meeting, hosted by the Islamic Republic of Iran, was successfully held on 1-2 July 2013 in Tehran-Iran. The Meeting was attended by delegations from Member Countries of D-8, namely, the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Republic of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Federal Republic of Nigeria  and the Republic of Turkey.

Deputy Head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) Dr. Manouchehr Jahanian, underlined that D-8 Tourism Delegations has gone through a thorough discussion finding the ways to enhance tourism cooperation such as ecotourism, health tourism and cultural tourism among the member states during the two days event.

On his part the Secretary General of the D-8 Organization, Seyed Ali Mohammed Mousavi underlined that Tourism sector nowadays is one of the most significant sector in the global economy. He mentioned that D-8 member countries are very rich in culture as well as in natural beauties. Thus Dr. Mousavi pointed out that Tourism might be an economic driver for member countries.

Delegations from member countries exchanged views and shared information on tourism initiatives and proposed areas for collaboration. They reviewed and remarked the progress achieved in the implementation of the resolutions and decisions of previous D-8 Tourism Cooperation meeting. The meeting scrutinized some of the most important issues such as the facilitation of tourist visa, the role of the private sector (SMEs) in tourism development, how to increase the volume of tourists.

At the end, Delegations adopted proposals and recommendations for promoting the field of D-8 tourism cooperation and welcomed the idea to establish a D-8 Tourism Fund and a Working Group for preparing a 10-year Roadmap and hailed Turkey and Malaysia for showing their interest to host the next meeting.

Photos of the meetings can be viewed from the following gallery: 

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/developing8/sets/72157634562999694/ ]

News related to this meeting in local and international media can be found from the below links: