Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C) for Culture & Tourism, Govt of India and N. Biren Singh, Chief Minister of Manipur jointly inaugurated the 8th International Tourism Mart on last Saturday at Imphal, Manipur. Speaking on the occasion, Patel said that the entire North East region has great heritage of culture and natural beauty to attract tourists from across the globe.
He said that to attract more tourists to the North East region, we need to change the perception and added that government is working towards the same. The Minister said that this is the second time when Manipur is hosting the International Tourism Mart and this time we can see that because of friendly environment for tourists more and more tourists are coming to visit Manipur.
He informed that North East region has witnessed 47 per cent growth in terms of visits of foreign tourists, which is a very good sign for the entire region. Patel said that due to reduction in E-Visa fee and reduction in GST rates on Hotel rooms, more tourists are coming to India. He also said that our government has opened 137 peaks for foreign tourists and besides this, Siachen glacier has also been opened for public. Shri Patel said that India has jumped in World Travel and Tourism Index from 40th to 34th position in 2019.
Speaking on the occasion, Singh thanked to Tourism Ministry for giving opportunity to Manipur to host 8th ITM. He said that because of peace in Manipur, the number of tourists are increasing consistently. He also said that Manipur has good infrastructure and better connectivity with other parts of the country so we are expecting good number of tourists in future.
A total of 36 foreign Buyer delegates from over 19 countries namely Australia, Canada, Cambodia, Czech, Dubai, Italy, Japan, Oman, Korea, Myanmar, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, USA, UK, Vietnam are participating in the Mart. Besides, the foreign delegates, 49 domestic stakeholders in Tourism sector from other parts of the country and 109 sellers from the North Eastern States are participating in the Mart.
The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, in association with the North Eastern States is organising the “International Tourism Mart” (ITM) at Imphal, Manipur from 23 November to 25 November, 2019. Nakap Nalo, Tourism Minister of Arunachal Pradesh and Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary, Tourism, Govt of India and other dignitaries from Central Ministries and North Eastern States were also present on the occasion.
