First BRICS Tourism Contact Group Meeting Held Online

On 12 April the first BRICS Tourism Contact Group meeting as part of Russia’s BRICS Chairship was held via videoconference. The meeting was attended by the representatives of the new BRICS member countries.

“We have been working hard to promote interesting new tourist destinations within BRICS,” Director of Multilateral Economic Cooperation and Special Projects at the Russian Ministry of Economic Development Nikita Kondratyev said. He presented to his foreign counterparts the plans for the BRICS Tourism Forum in Moscow, which would be hosting the tourism working group’s first meeting alongside the traditional BRICS Tourism Ministers’ meeting.

“The forum will be held in Moscow and will gather major BRICS tourism industry representatives in one place, providing businesses with the opportunity to make new connections and tourists with the chance to learn more about what Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Russia, South Africa, and the UAE have to offer them,” he said.

At the end of the meeting, the Russian party suggested to establish a BRICS tourism working group and approve a tourism cooperation roadmap for 2024 to 2026.

Meeting participants expressed their support for the Russian initiatives and confirmed that they would serve to improve communication between tourism industry players and increase tourist traffic within BRICS.

The roadmap is projected to increase tourism within the expanded BRICS to 5 million trips by the end of 2024, an almost 400% increase over the 1.4 million travelers recorded in 2023.

The Roscongress Foundation manages the events of Russia’s BRICS Chairship.