Intl Tourism Mart at Gangtok showcasing tourism potentiality of NER

Agartala (Tripura) Oct 14: The 4th International tourism mart at Gangtok is set begin today.

With the objective of showcasing the largely untapped tourism potential of North Eastern region in domestic and international key markets, Ministry of Tourism in association with the North Eastern States organizes International Tourism Mart (ITM) in different North Eastern States on rotation basis. Considering the contiguous features of West Bengal with the north east, Sikkim has been included in the Mart.

The 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd ITM was organized in Guwahati, Tawang and Shillong, respectively. The 4^th ITM is being organized in Gangtok, Sikkim during 14^th – 16^th October, 2015 by the Ministry of Tourism in association with the North Eastern States and West Bengal.

The North Eastern region of India comprising the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim, 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, festivals, arts and crafts, make it a holiday destination waiting to be explored.

The numbers of Foreign Tourist Visits (FTVs) to North Eastern States during 2014 were 1.19 lakh with a high growth of 39.8% revealing a significant improvement in the growth of 27.9% in FTVs registered during 2013 over 2012.

International buyers and media delegates from 27 countries namely Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, USA and Vietnam and from different regions of the country will be participating in the Mart.

They will engage in business-to-business meetings with sellers from the North East Region and West Bengal. This will enable tourism product suppliers to reach out to international and domestic buyers and promote tourism in the region.

Besides the foreign delegates, domestic buyers from other parts of the country and sellers from the North Eastern States and West Bengal will be participating in the Mart. (http://www.enewstime.in/?p=884) Representatives of State Tourism Departments of these States will also be present to showcase their tourism destinations and to interact with the delegates. In addition to the business meetings, the three day event will include presentations, cultural evenings, visits to local attractions in and around Gangtok and press meetings with the media.

It will bring together the tourism business fraternity and entrepreneurs from the eight north eastern States of India and West Bengal. The event has been planned and scheduled to facilitate interaction between buyers, sellers, media, Government agencies and others.

Post-Mart Familiarization tours to the States in the region have been arranged by the State Governments for the overseas delegates from the 17^th to 26^th October 2015 to create awareness about the rich and varied tourism products of the region and give them first-hand knowledge and experience of the destination.