Tourism ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will gather in Dhaka on February 5 and 7 to talk about tourism potential among 57 member states and discuss ways to contribute better to their economies.
"This is the first ever any OIC tourism ministers gathering in Bangladesh and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the conference formally on February 6," Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister A K M Shajahan Kamal told journalists at a press briefing at secretariat on Sunday.
High level representatives including 15 tourism ministers of nearly 30 OIC member states will join the conference to be held at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the city.
The main discussion under the 10th ICTM theme "Promoting Regional Integration through Tourism" will be held on Feb 6 while sessions for the tourism officials on February 5 and technical tour for the participants on February 7.
During this session, OIC Secretary General Dr Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen will present his report to the Ministers of Tourism of the OIC Member States.
Kamal said Bangladesh is considering the ICTM as an opportunity to promote our tourism potential and heritages to the Muslim world.
The minister said he is also expected to discuss on Rohingya issues with his counterparts of the OIC member states.
The conference will discuss core issues including development of Islamic tourism, progress on tourism infrastructure projects, OIC tourism fairs and OIC City of Tourism Award (2019 and 2020).
Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary S M Ghulam Farooq, Additional Secretary M Imran and Chief Executive Officer of Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) Dr Nasir Uddin also spoke at the briefing.
Mentioning the numbers of foreign participants, nearly 100, and numbers of tourism ministers, the secretary said "We are delighted to say that it will be the highest ever foreign participation for any ICTM."
Referring to the tradition of declaring two cities of OIC member countries as "Capital of Islamic Tourism" at every meeting of ICTM, the BTB chief said the name of Dhaka would be proposed this time to select as capital of Islamic tourism either for 2019 or 2020.
"We are 98 per cent hopeful to achieve the title of Capital of Islamic Tourism for Dhaka that is popularly known as the city of Mosques" he said.
The last 9th session declared Madina and the Iranian Tabriz city as the capitals of Islamic tourism for 2017 and 2018 respectively.
During the conference, Dr Nasir said Bangladesh will seek Taka 13million for implementing a project for conserving and protecting Muslim heritage of the country.
Bangladesh will also seek support from OIC in setting an institute for creating skilled human resources for the travel and hospitality sector.
The BTB is also taking preparation to propose for being the host to organize the 5th OIC Tourism Fair here in 2020, he said.
Apart from the core agenda of ICTM - development and promotion of Islamic culture and heritage - the 10th session will also review progress of the tourism projects in different countries; those are being implemented in line with joint cooperation on Islamic tourism, reports BSS.
With a market potential of more than 50 Muslim countries and no less than 1.6 billion Muslims, tremendous opportunities await for those who are willing to meet the demands for Muslim-friendly tourism products and services.
The ICTM is being held in different OIC member countries in every two years. Its 9th session was held in Niamey, the capital of Niger in 2015. As per the tradition, the chairmanship of the conference will be transferred to Bangladesh tourism minister from his Niger counterpart (current chair of ICTM) for next two years at the opening ceremony of the upcoming 10th ICTM session.
A recent OIC study revealed that in 2015 the estimated number of Muslim tourists were 117 million, representing close to 10 percent of the entire tourism industry. This number is forecasted to grow to 168 million visitors by 2020 and 11 percent of the market segment with a market value projected to exceed US Dollar 200 billion.
