DRNew Delhi: The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, in association with the Department of Tourism, Government of Tripura and the North Eastern States is organizing the seventh International Tourism Mart in Agartala, Tripura from November 22 to 24, 2018.
The event will be held at Pragna Bhawan. It will be inaugurated by Prof. Kaptan Singh Solanki, Governor of Tripura, in the presence of K J Alphons, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism; Biplab Kumar Deb, Chief Minister of Tripura; Rashmi Verma IAS, Secretary, Tourism and other dignitaries from Central Ministries and North Eastern States.
The annual event is organised in the North Eastern region with the objective of highlighting its tourism potential in the domestic and international markets. It brings together the tourism business fraternity and entrepreneurs from the eight North Eastern States. The event has been planned and scheduled to facilitate interaction between buyers, sellers, media, government agencies and other stakeholders.
International Tourism Marts are organised in the North Eastern States on rotation basis. The earlier editions of this mart have been held in Guwahati, Tawang, Shillong, Gangtok and Imphal.
The North East Region of India comprises Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim, and is endowed with diverse tourist attractions and products. The varied topography of the region, its flora and fauna, the ethnic communities with their rich heritage of ancient traditions and lifestyles, its festivals, arts and crafts, make it a holiday destination waiting to be explored.
The ITM will see wide participation of international buyers and media delegates from countries around the world and different regions of the country. They will be engaging in B2B meetings with sellers from the North Eastern Region. This will enable the tourism product suppliers from the region to reach out to international and domestic buyers, with the objective of promoting tourism to the region.
A total of 41 foreign delegates from 18 countries namely Australia, Canada, China, France, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, UAE and USA will be in Tripura for the Mart.
These include 23 tour operators and travel agents and 18 media representatives, journalists, travel writers and bloggers. Besides foreign delegates, 26 domestic tour operators from other parts of the country and 78 sellers from the North Eastern States will participate. Representatives of State Tourism Departments of these North East States will also be present to showcase their tourism destinations and to interact with the delegates.
In addition to the business interactions between tour operators, the three-day event also includes presentations by state governments of the region on their tourism potential, panel discussions, cultural evenings, sightseeing visits to local attractions in and around Agartala and a press meet on November 23.
An exhibition by State Tourism Departments from the North Eastern States including display of beautiful handicrafts and handlooms is also being organized.
Post-mart familiarisation tours to the North Eastern states have been arranged for the international delegates to create awareness about the rich and varied tourism products of the North Eastern region and to give them a first-hand experience of the destination.
