Commentators can comment, opponents may criticize others may look at it as failure but in a real sense it was historic. Thanks to the Government of India for choosing Kashmir as one of the destinations for the G20 Summit. Between May 22 and 23, the G20 delegates arrived in Kashmir to hold the third tourism working group meeting.
The G20 is a union of the most powerful economies of the world. The Group of Twenty (G20) comprises 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom and United States) and the European Union.
The G20 members represent around 85% of the global GDP, over 75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population. Since it shares the world’s major wealth and population, it is undeniably a remarkable achievement for the Jammu Kashmir administration to host the delegates and showcase their worth in the tourism sector.
Kashmir has an immense tourism potential and experts believe; it has so far just tapped under 20 per cent of its full potential with lesser tourists’ footfalls from the developed countries. It is to be believed if Kashmir tourism is promoted across the Middle east region which shares different and harsh climate conditions, Kashmir will emerge as a high-end tourism destination in the world.
So far it has major footfalls of domestic tourism only. The G20 tourism summit in Kashmir may likely open new opportunities in the tourism and entertainment industry. The message across has been sent with delegations coming here that Kashmir is absolutely peaceful and beautiful to visit.
Prior to this visit, Kashmir was only open for foreign delegations to audit its security issues and human rights owing to massive propaganda by Pakistan and its western sponsored media.
Now the times have changed and the reality is spoken assertively. The peace honed over the last five years began to decrease the economic benefits. Jammu Kashmir is emerging as a partner of economic prosperity with the rest of the country. Let’s not slow down or miss the bus.
Let’s move on and not only to usher into the new dawn of peace and development from now but also ensure all losses suffered in the past over three decades are compensated. But the onus lies on the Government of India since it needs to monitor and guide Jammu Kashmir consistently for some more time so that desired targets are achieved.
