The Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism, KJ Alphons recently announced that the Tourism Ministry in partnership with the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) and with the support of State /UT Governments will organise the ‘first ever’ India Tourism Mart (ITM) from September 16-18, 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The objective of the event is to create an annual Global Tourism Mart for India in line with major international travel marts being held in countries across the world. The Mart will provide a platform for all stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industries to interact and transact business opportunities.
Addressing the media in New Delhi, the Tourism Minister said that India with its great potential in tourism and hospitality sector needs to dramatically increase the foreign tourist footfall and reap the benefits. The Minister added that the Tourism Ministry has been conducting foreign road shows, releasing theme based promotional videos and thus, the ITM 2018 will be a big step which will get buyers from all over the world. Alphons also hoped that through ITM 2018, India can showcase its hidden destinations to the world, especially to emerging tourism markets like China, Latin America, and Japan etc. The Minister also hoped that with this event, the Government’s aim of bringing the Tourist footfall to double in next three years shall be fulfilled. The Minister thanked the entire Tourism Industry for coming together and for their active involvement in materializing this global event which has been due for a long time. The Tourism Minister, during the Consultative meeting with States held prior to the briefing, urged all the states to come up quickly with unique promotional videos etc. so that it can be showcased for better publicity.
Speaking at the event, the Tourism Secretary, Rashmi Verma said that ITM will be the best platform for the States to showcase their products to international buyers, opinion makers and bloggers and attract more tourists to their respective states. The Secretary added that till now only few states like Kerala, Rajasthan were conducting the Tourism Marts and only a few states have participated in International Marts. Therefore, ITM 2018 will be a great opportunity for other states who neither have their own Marts nor ever participated in any International Marts to showcase themselves in front of the International buyers. Verma also conveyed that the Overseas Tourism Offices will make the list of buyers which shall be verified and finalized by a Committee which has all the Tourism/Hospitality associations so that only genuine buyers take part in the Mart.
The Chairman of the organising committee and FAITH Secretary, Subhash Goyal said that it has been for the first time that the Tourism industry stakeholders are coming together for such a large scale event and with Ministry’s support and quick decision the ITM 2018 has now been realised. He conveyed that FAITH is the apex organisation of all the important trade and hospitality associations of the country with all the 10 major Tourist organisations like FHRI, HAI, IATO being involved in this mega event and India Convention Promotion Board (ICPB) shall coordinate the whole event.
Buyer delegates for ITM 2018 are being invited from important and potential source markets such as North America, West Europe, East Asia, Latin America, CIS countries etc. Approximately, 300+ international buyers, influencers, bloggers etc. are expected to attend the event. The international delegates from overseas markets will interact with Indian seller delegates and the buyers will include current buyers who are already selling India as well as potential buyers who are not selling India at present but have shown interest in the country. The event will also provide an opportunity to the buyers to see the world class tourism facilities available in our country such as Airports, Hotels, Tourist destinations, upcoming facilities, MICE facilities, possibility in the field of adventure tourism and other niche products.
Approximately 175-200 stalls will be provided to the sellers to enable them to interact with the buyers. These will include pavilion for States & Union Territories to showcase their unique tourism destinations and products.
