Al-Quds Al-Sherif was announced as the capital of Islamic tourism for 2015 by H.E. Iyad Ameen Madani, the Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as per the Resolution of the 8th Session of the Conference of Ministers of Tourism (ICTM) held on 4-6 December 2013 in Banjul, the Gambia.

The Coordination Committee on the Implementation of the “Framework for Development and Cooperation in the Domain of Tourism among OIC Member States” selected Al-Quds Al-Sherif, State of Palestine and Konya, Republic of Turkey as the awardees of OIC City of Tourism for 2015 for 2016 respectively.

The OIC City of Tourism Award has been initiated in 2015 with an aim to galvanise intra-OIC activities in the awarded city, thereby developing the socio-economic potentials of the city while scaling up intra-OIC trade in goods and services.

In line with the selection of the Al Quds Al Sherif City as the OIC City of Tourism 2015, SESRIC will organise a 2-day Workshop on “Improving Tourism Potential of Al Quds Al Sherif City” in Ankara, Turkey in the last quarter of 2015. The objective of the workshop is to provide the participants an opportunity to deliberate and to exchange views, knowledge and expertise with a view to determining ways and modalities for increasing the tourism potential of Al Quds Al Sherif City and formulating concrete recommendations for action at the OIC level to be presented to the 9th Session of the Islamic Conference of Tourism Ministers (ICTM) that will be hosted by Niger in 2015

Moreover, SESRIC will implement “Awards” in commemoration of OIC City of Tourism 2015 as well. The awards will be extended in the following categories:

• Best Hotel
• Best Restaurant
• Best Travel Agency
• Best Tourism Product
• Best Print Media