International Tourism Mart at Guwahati

The Union Ministry of Tourism will organise an International Tourism Mart at Guwahati from 18th to 20th of this month. Announcing this at a press conference in New Delhi today, Union Tourism Minister Shri K. Chiranjeevi said that this will not only be the first ever International Tourism event to be organised in the north-eastern region, but also the first International Tourism Mart to focus on a specific region of India. He said “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. The Minister informed that about 100 delegates including tourism Ministers, Tourism Secretaries, Tour operators, Hoteliers and Media Representatives from Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Combodia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America and Vietnam will be attending the mart. He said these delegates will engage in one-two-one meetings with sellers from the north eastern region and West Bengal. Shri Chiranjeevi said this will enable tourism product suppliers from the region to reach out to international and domestic buyers and promote tourism in the region. The Minister said the three day event will include, presentations, cultural evenings and press meets with the media from India and overseas. Post-Mart familiarisation tours to the states in the region have been arranged by the State Governments for the overseas delegates, from the 21st to 28th January 2013 to create awareness about the rich and varied tourism products of the states of the north eastern region and give them first-hand knowledge and experience of the destination. Shri Chiranjeevi disclosed that celebrity artistes such as Lou Majaw from Meghalaya, Rubin from Manipur, Mami Varte from Mizoram and Debojit Saha, Dikshu, Priyanka Bharali, Manas Robin, Joy Chakravarty, Simanta Shekhor, Mousam Gogoi and Papori Sharma from Assam will perform at the Mart. The north east 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. Considering the contiguous features of West Bengal with the north east, the state has been included in the Mart.