TravTalk India Online Magazine
Hosting PATA Travel Mart 2023 in India will open doors for many such international events and boost the country’s inbound potential, says Manisha Saxena, Director General, Tourism, Government of India. She also emphasizes on taking pro planet steps under ‘Travel for LiFE’.
TT Bureau
PATA Travel Mart 2023 (PTM 2023), organised at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi from 4-6 October, was attended by travel leaders from across the world. Addressing the participants at the event, Manisha Saxena, Director General, Tourism, Government of India, said, “To host PATA Travel Mart in India is a very important occasion for us. Since this is the first physical PTM after the COVID-19 pandemic, I hope it will do wonders for India’s inbound tourism. Even though PATA is an outbound body, but having events like these bring people from around the world to India and they see how India has changed. At one of the sessions today, the Chairman of PATA narrated his experience of backpacking through India 34 years ago, and he says that he can’t believe India has changed a lot. Now, we are here to welcome every tourist from across the world. I hope this message goes through this event, and many more such events come to India.” When asked about other such initiatives the MOT is taking, Saxena claimed, “Of course, events like these are very much the part and parcel of the promotional activities.”
Word of mouth publicity
She said, “We are showcasing India at every forum. G20 Presidency of India has been a great event in bringing delegates to India, taking them to different parts of the country and giving them experiences, which were very different, and which, we hope, by word-of-mouth publicity will result in having more conferences and events in India. Also, I believe, on social media, as well as on other platforms and across travel fairs, we will be able to sell India and market India’s experiences like never before.”
Choosing Delhi for the event
Saxena expressed her happiness over the organisation of the 43rd edition of PATA Travel Mart in Delhi. “It is indeed a very happy moment for all of us in the MOT that PATA Travel Mart is happening in Delhi. And the month of October is the best time to be in Delhi because it is the onset of winters, and the weather is much more pleasant,” she said.
MOT initiatives
The Director General, on the occasion of World Tourism Day, was asked about the measures taken by the ministry on sustainable tourism. She said, “We have taken many steps towards sustainable tourism in India, phase 1 is about the travellers and phase 2 is about the travel business. The idea is that everyone should take pro planet actions in this regard.”
She added, “We have also launched two metro trains with the ‘Travel for LiFE’ branding, and these are the two longest lines of Delhi Metro. We hope that this message will be carried across lakhs of people in Delhi. Simultaneously, we are doing ‘Travel for LiFE’ pledge at 108 villages under the Vibrant Villages programme and some other places across the country. The message is we can be pro planet.”
Green Investments
The theme for this year’s World Tourism Day being ‘Tourism & Green Investments’, she said, “We launched rural homestays competition and best tourism village competition. The idea behind these competitions is to encourage people to take up technologies for building, waste disposal, sanitation, and some other methods which are not harmful for the environment.”
