TravTalk India Online Magazine
The maiden India Tourism Mart (ITM) held in Delhi recently witnessed dignitaries and veterans of the tourism and hospitality industry in attendance. The event coincided with the launch of Paryatan Parv.
Nisha Verma & Manas Dwivedi
The maiden India Tourism Mart opened at The Ashok New Delhi with the introduction of member association heads of Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH). On the same day, MOT also launched the second edition of Paryatan Parv officially inaugurated by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at Rajpath Lawns. Also present at the opening of the 12-day celebration were K J Alphons, Minister of State (I/C), Ministry of Tourism; Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Tourism; Satyajeet Rajan, Director General, Tourism; Meenakshi Sharma, Additional Director General, Tourism and Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Tourism.
Welcoming the delegates at the event, Alphons said, “With Paryatan Parv, our idea is to convey the incredibility of our country with its diverse offerings. The event gives an opportunity to the foreign buyers to get a taste of India. Our aim is to double the arrival figures, revenue and the generation of foreign exchange by tourism by 2020. One of the biggest achievements for us has been the creation of 14.67 million jobs by tourism in the last four years.”
ITM was formally inaugurated by Piyush Goyal, Union Minister, Railways, Coal and Corporate Affairs, at The Ashok New Delhi. He said, “The MOT has set very high ambitions for tourism in the country. The best part is that the fundamentals behind this event are right. Unless that is in place, we cannot attract the number of tourists that other countries are attracting.”
Alphons informed that ITM will be an annual event to be held in the third week of September. “We recorded 7 per cent increase in tourist arrivals in 2016, which increased to 14 per cent in 2017. We are now looking to aggressively market India internationally as the land of wonders,” he informed.
