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The Kingdom of Bahrain, represented by H.E Shaikha Mai bint Mohammad Al-Khalifa, Minister of Culture, participated in the First Constituent Meeting of the Arab Ministers of Tourism in in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States. Scheduled to take part are Their Highnesses and Excellences from various ministries of tourism from GCC countries on Tuesday, Oct 14, in the State of Kuwait.

Welcoming delegations coming from GGC countries, Kuwaiti Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received the ministers taking part in the meeting, along with GCC Secretary-General Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani. The Kuwaiti Emir stressed the importance of inter-GCC tourism relations, which aim at strengthening common cooperation interests and encouraging Gulf States tourism movements.

The Kuwaiti leader stressed the importance of promoting GCC pan-tourism to bolster join complementary work and consolidate joint relations. Kuwaiti Prime Minister Shaikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah also received the delegations, stressing the importance of developing GCC tourism cooperation.

The idea of the promotion of GCC tourism’s committee into ministerial level, has come at the initiative of HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, President of SCTA, who had suggested that the meetings of the Committee be held on a ministerial level due to its important mandate, and in light of the important role that the tourism sector plays as an important tributary to the economies of GCC countries, as well as a vital and leading area for prompting GCC countries’ mutual efforts. GCC tourism ministers also discussed the recommendations of the preparatory meeting of the undersecretaries for tourism affairs of the member countries, which dealt with ways and means of framing unified domestic regulations and reviewing the report of the secretariat on the efforts made by the Council of Tourism Cooperation of the GCC over the past years to promote joint tourism in the member countries.

H.E Shaikha Mai bint Mohammad Al-Khalifa, Minister of Culture, addressed the meeting by presenting the major achievements of the Kingdom of Bahrain while chairing the 16th session of the Joint Council meeting. Bahrain has implemented the recommendations and resolutions of this council meeting, with regard to youth social and knowledge participation programs, stressing the importance of implementing Arab tourism strategy, coordination with World Tourism Organization to present Arab tourism strategy Terms of Reference (TOR) and Arab Summer Capital criteria nomination. H.E also stressed the importance of celebrating the Arab Tourism Day, which corresponds to the birthday of Ibn Battuta on February 25. The Ministry of Culture launched the Arab Tourism Day on the sidelines of the festivities marking the Manama, capital of Arab Tourism 2013.

Concerning the preservation of the Arab urban heritage, entrusted by the 16th session of the Ministerial Joint Council meeting to Bahrain follow up with its implementation, H.E highlighted the importance of establishing legal and institutional mechanisms to manage urban heritage in Arab countries old cities. H.E Shaikha Mai also lauded the steps taken to enhance cooperation between GCC countries with regard to urban heritage preservation chart, presenting the leading role of the World Heritage Regional Center in Bahrain. The Minister of Culture argued that safeguarding heritage can be achieved through many actions and procedures, such as training workshops for Arab heritage experts at the Center, preservation of world heritage sites in the Arab countries by inaugurating restoration projects, cooperation and coordination with Arab countries ‘s officials in charge of heritage conservation, especially in countries witnessing security and stability challenges.

The meeting agenda also included other topics and subjects, such as establishing an independent authority or body to take the charge of enacting inter-GCC tourism development, establishing a specialized working group with regard to this authority establishment. The special group will also study any propositions concerning GCC Handicrafts Union, which would sponsor many programmes and projects aiming at developing this sector.
The meeting also reviewed reports by the Consulting Committee of the GCC High Council, and discussed key issues related to promoting tourism and heritage programs in the Gulf region topics such as the issue of a common tourist visa for the GCC, significance of the private participation in the tourism sector. The meeting paved the way for enhancing tourism cooperation among GCC countries to better serve the people by developing the regional tourism sectors comprehensively. Worth to mention that the preparatory meeting of the undersecretaries for tourism affairs from GCC countries have already discussed the framing of unified domestic regulations and reviewed the report of the secretariat on the concerted efforts made by the Council of Tourism Cooperation over the past few years to promote joint tourism in the region.