Iranian Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Reza Salehi Amiri made the remarks on Thursday evening on the sidelines of his visit to India, ahead of the third BRICS Tourism Ministers’ Meeting in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
He said the meeting would focus on ways to expand relations among peoples through tourism, describing tourism as an effective means of deepening cultural, social and human ties between countries.
Salehi Amiri noted that BRICS and its member and partner countries account for around 46 percent of the world’s population and include major powers such as China, Russia, Brazil, India and Iran. He said the bloc therefore has significant potential to establish new forms of cooperation in tourism.
The Iranian minister said a 15-point draft declaration had been prepared in cooperation with the BRICS expert team and would be reviewed and adopted at the main tourism ministers’ meeting on Friday.
He identified two key areas in the declaration and future BRICS tourism cooperation: expanding tourism ties and strengthening relations among peoples, and developing the tourism economy of member states.
Salehi-Amiri said Iran views tourism as a means of bringing nations closer together, promoting mutual understanding of cultures and strengthening relations between countries. He added that BRICS members need to collectively work to attract new tourism capacities from India, China, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia and other member and partner countries and make tourism “one of the major pillars of economic cooperation” within the bloc.
He also highlighted Iran’s proposal to establish joint financial mechanisms for tourism, saying one of the key proposals in the draft declaration is the creation of a BRICS Tourism Infrastructure Development Fund.
According to the minister, sustainable funding and new investment are essential for developing tourism infrastructure, and such a fund could facilitate joint investments and the implementation of infrastructure projects across BRICS member states.
Salehi Amiri said Iran is simultaneously pursuing three objectives: strengthening tourism among countries that collectively account for nearly half of the world’s population, activating and expanding the tourism economy through new investment and economic cooperation channels, and presenting Iran’s positions on tourism issues to officials and tourism ministers from BRICS member countries.