Khiva: The 12th Islamic Conference of Tourism Ministers (12th ICTM), Khiva, in the Republic of Uzbekistan, continued the Sessions of the Meeting of Senior Officials, on Saturday, 1st June 2024, and it will submit the draft decisions to the 12th ICTM tomorrow, Sunday, June 2, 2024.

The deliberations of the 12th ICTM will focus on the theme of the Conference “Development of the Tourism Industry in a Sustainable and Resilient Way” in order to achieve development goals in the tourism sector.

Among others, the “Strategic Roadmap for Development of Islamic Tourism in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Member States”, which was adopted at the 10th ICTM, provides a systematic approach to promote cooperation among the Member States for development and specifies the needed resources for the anticipated changes. The Roadmap outlines guidelines for the future development of Islamic tourism in the OIC Member States via Islamic tourism standards and quality control drafts in management, operations, and implementation.

The Strategic Roadmap also sets the stage for cooperation among OIC countries, OIC Institutions, and relevant international organizations in the field of Islamic tourism. The document identifies five key specific thematic areas of cooperation in the domain of Islamic tourism, namely data and monitoring, policy and regulation development, marketing and promotion, destination and industry development, and capacity development in order to enhance cooperation at intra-OIC level as well as to improve Islamic tourism ecosystem in the OIC Member States.

In the same vein, The OIC confirms that the adoption of an OIC Halal Food and Tourism Standards, are all aimed at improving ownership and popularization of Islamic products in the interest of Muslim consumers. This will at the same time increase intra-OIC trade and investment.

On another topic of the 12th ICTM, the Ministerial Conference will also select three winners of the OIC City of Tourism Award for the years 2025, 2026, and 2027 among 7 cities nominated by 6 OIC Member-states.