The BRICS Tourism Ministers adopted the Jaipur Declaration, by consensus in Jaipur, Rajasthan, on Friday. The ministerial meeting was held under India’s 2026 Chairship of BRICS and was chaired by Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism.

The BRICS Tourism Track in 2026 was guided by the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”.

The Jaipur Declaration set out four priority areas for cooperation among BRICS members. These priorities were AI and Tourism, Sustainability and Responsible Tourism, Tourism Skilling and Capacity Building, and Tourism Exchanges and Seamless Travel Facilitation.

The meeting saw participation from ministers of nine BRICS member states including Gustavo Costa Feliciando, Minister of Tourism, Brazil; Reza Salehi Amiri, Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, Iran; Patricia De Lille, Minister of Tourism, South Africa; and Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy and Tourism, UAE along with Heads of Delegation from China, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Russia. 

The Indian delegation included Bhuvnesh Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, and Harikishore S., Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, among other officials.

The declaration referred to safe, responsible and human-centred AI for destination management, travel facilitation, visitor services and multilingual communication. AI in tourism is used for digital booking systems, customer support, route planning and data-based visitor management.

The declaration followed preparatory discussions in Jaipur on August 19 and 20 under the BRICS Tourism Working Group.-TradeArabia News Service