Turkic Council delegation headed by the Deputy Secretary General Dr. Omer Kocaman attended the opening ceremony of the 22nd Session of the UNWTO General Assembly "Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals: Journey 2030" held on 13 September 2017 in Chengdu, China.
After the official opening ceremony the panel session on High-Level Segment on "Tourism and Sustainable Development Goals and Building Partnership for Development: the Example of the Belt and Road Initiative" started, where specific challenges and problems such as the lack of government leadership in the tourism sector both at country and regional-global level have been discussed.
Incorporating the tourism policies to SDGs at country-level were underlined as well. Concerning the tourism sector in Silk Road countries Mr. Taleb Rifai UNWTO Secretary General in his speech, emphasized the importance of infrastructure development, travel facilitation measures and standardizing the standards.
After the panel session Mr. Kocaman participated in the official lunch given by the Secretary General Mr. Taleb Rifai.
Project Director of the Turkic Council Yedil Myrzakhanov accompanied the Deputy Secretary General during the conference.
