International Tourism Mart at Guwahati 23 Countries to Attend

To highlight the tourism potential of the North East region in the domestic and international markets, the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India  is organizing an International Tourism Mart at Guwahati from the 18th to 20th January 2013. Announcing this in Guwahati today union Tourism Secretary Shri Parvez Dewan said that buyers and media delegates from around the world and from different regions of the country will participate in the Mart and will engage in one-to-one meetings with sellers from the North Eastern Region and West Bengal. He said this will enable tourism  product  suppliers from  the  region  to  reach  out  to  international  and domestic buyers and promote tourism in the region. Shri Dewan informed that about 85 buyer delegates from 23 countriesincluding ASEAN countries, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Japan, Korea, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, U.K. and USA have confirmed their participation in the Mart.                               The overseas delegates include Deputy Tourism Minister from Lao PDR, Executive heads of National Tourism Organisations from Cambodia, Singapore, Bangladesh and Bhutan, 55 tour operators, 9 hoteliers and 14 media representatives. The country-wise break up of overseas delegates is as follows : Country Number of Delegates Country Number of Delegates Australia 4 Malaysia 4 Bangladesh 6 Myanmar 5 Bhutan 5 The Philippines 1 Brunei 1 Singapore 7 Cambodia 8 Spain 1 France 2 Sweden 1 Germany 3 Switzerland 1 Indonesia 2 Thailand 4 Italy 2 United Kingdom 3 Japan 4 United States of America 1 Korea 5 Vietnam 7 Lao PDR 8 Besides foreign delegates, there are approximately 70 domestic buyers from other parts of the country and 108 sellers from the nine participating States.                                     In addition to the business meetings, 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.                                 The International Tourism Mart will be inaugurated on January 19, 2013 at  Guwahati by  Shri Janaki Ballav Patnaik, Governor of Assam in the presence of ShriChiranjeevi, Union Tourism Minister.                         The International Tourism Mart, Guwahati 2013 is not only 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. 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.                             A special blog on the event has been operational since December 2012 with all information about the event which can be accessed from the home page of the Ministry of Tourism Website www.incredibleindia.org. This blog is being updated regularly. Samir/(from Guwahati)