India and the US will have a bilateral meeting during the G20 events in Goa during which both sides will seek to boost cooperation in the tourism sector, officials said on Sunday. The bilateral meeting assumes significance as it will take place at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to the US on a state visit.

About 75 delegates have registered so far for the G20 Tourism Working Group (TWG) meeting, and close to 150 delegates have registered for the G20 Tourism Ministerial meeting, slated to be held here from June 19-22, a senior official in the tourism ministry said during a press interaction here.

Asked if BRICS countries, including Russia and China, have registered, he said, "Russia has registered, but China has not registered so far." It was not immediately known if China will attend or skip the two key events in Goa. It had not attended the third TWG meeting in Srinagar held in May.

Asked if delegates from the US and India will have bilateral meetings during the G20 events here, Additional Secretary in Tourism Ministry, Rakesh Verma, said, "The US delegation is having a bilateral meeting with India." The bilateral meeting is expected to take place on June 21, officials said.

Prime Minister Modi is visiting the US from June 21-24 at the invitation of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. Union Tourism Secretary V Vidyavati told reporters here that the fourth and the last Tourism Working Group Meeting (TWG) of the G20 taking place in Goa was a "perfect grand finale" of the tourism track meetings held so far. "It is happening at one of the best locations, Goa, rich in cultural heritage and natural scenic beauty. There will be side events too besides the TWG, and at the end of the two meets, the Goa Roadmap and Action Plan for tourism as a vehicle for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) will come out," she said.

Successful deliberations by TWG will promote economic growth, preserve cultural heritage, and promote sustainable development, Vidyavathi said. Under India's G20 Tourism Track, the TWG is working on five inter-connected priority areas — green tourism, digitisation, skills, tourism MSMEs and destination. These priorities are key building blocks for accelerating the transition of the tourism sector and achieving the targets for 2030 SDGs.

Also, there will be a "ministerial communique" that will be released at the end of the tourism working group and other deliberations which will endorse the Goa roadmap, she said.

Delegates have began arriving in Goa since Saturday to take part in the fourth TWG and the G20 Tourism Ministerial Meeting, officials said.

The purpose of the TWG meeting is to discuss and address global tourism challenges and opportunities, they said Asked if conflicts and natural disasters as factors impacting tourism sector will be part of the discussion, Vidyavati said they will figure in the discussions during the TWG.

The G20 event in the coastal state is taking place days after cyclone Biparjoy had a landfall in Gujarat and left a trail of destruction in Kutch and Saurashtra regions.

Verma said green tourism vision entails making the sector sustainable, inclusive and resilient, and that "we have to develop the tourism sector in a resilient way so that it can absorb the shocks of any such major disruptions, natural or man-made".

Side events will promote cruise tourism as a "model for sustainable and responsible travel" and showcase the cultural heritage of the coastal state. Union Minister of State for Tourism Shripad Naik on Friday conducted a comprehensive review of the preparations for the G20 events.

In conjunction with these events, the Ministry of Tourism has organised celebrations for the IYD at Durbar Hall, Raj Bhavan. All ministers and delegates from G20 nations will actively participate in this session, embracing the spirit of unity and well-being, officials said.

The fourth G20 Tourism Working Group meeting will be held from June 19-20. The G20 ministerial meeting after the TWG meeting is scheduled to be held from June 21-22, with ministers of tourism from the G20 countries and other invited guests to discuss the outcomes of the previous working group meetings and adopt a joint declaration on tourism cooperation, they said.

All G20 tourism ministers of all member countries, invited countries and heads of international organisations have requested for "bilateral meetings with our tourism minister for mutual cooperation and deliberation on tourism-related matters", an official said in Delhi earlier.

On June 19, a side event on 'Making Cruise Tourism a Model for Sustainable and Responsible Travel' will be organised, focusing on strategies to promote cruise tourism.

The first Tourism Working Group Meeting of the G20 was held at Runn of Kutch in Gujarat followed by the second one at Siliguri and Darjeeling in West Bengal, and the third one was hosted in Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.

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