Tourism promotes brotherhood: Kavinder

The two-day third international conference on “Sustainable destination excellence: Revitalising peace through innovation in tourism” began at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM), University of Jammu, here today.
Kavinder Gupta, Speaker, J&K Assembly, was the chief guest at the inaugural function, while Farooq Ahmad Shah, Secretary, Tourism Department, was the guest of honour.
RD Sharma, Vice Chancellor, University of Jammu, presided over the function. Ma Christina G Aquino, president, APacCHRIE, and Executive Director for Planning and Development of the Lyceum of Philippines University, Manila, was the keynote speaker. The convener of the conference is Prof Parikshat Singh Manhas, Director, SHTM.
The conference is being attended by over 120 international and national delegates, key government officials of the Tourism Department, industry professionals, faculty members, research scholars and students.
In his address, Kavinder Gupta emphasised the role of tourism in integrating societies and promoting brotherhood and unity. Appreciating the theme of the conference, he said tourism must be promoted at a large scale, so that new issues could be resolved through innovation and creativity.
Ma Chrsitina G Aquino in her keynote address highlighted the importance of convergence between the government, industry and academia, which, she said, could help all the stakeholders of the tourism and hospitality sector. Highlighting the 15 mega trends of the travel industry, she said, “We should have better vision for tourism other that just business and must have a reflection of humanity.”
Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary, Tourism Department, said the focus of the tourism development should be on the stakeholders who were the ultimate beneficiaries and it needed an integrated and sustainable approach to remove trust deficit in conflict destinations like J&K.
He said the J&K Government was keen to collaborate with University of Jammu to explore avenues of research with policy implications.
The Vice Chancellor in his presidential remarks said tourism was an effective strategy to promote peace and that sustainability was a dynamic process.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Director, SHTM, said the conference had set a new dimension of bringing various tourism stakeholders on a common platform to discuss and deliberate on various issues related to sustainable tourism.
Anil Gupta, conference secretary, conducted the proceedings of the function, while Suvidha Khanna of the SHTM, coordinated the technical sessions.