By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JULY 09, 2018: THE Minister of State for Tourism, Mr. K. J. Alphons, today announced that the Tourism Ministry in partnership with the  Federation of Associations in  Indian  Tourism and  Hospitality  (FAITH)  and with the support of State /UT Governments  will organize  the   ‘first ever' India  Tourism  Mart (ITM)  from  16 th   to  18 th September, 2018  at  Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The objective  of  the event  is  to  create  an annual Global  Tourism  Mart  for  India  in line with  major  international  travel  marts  being  held  in  countries   across  the world. The Mart  will provide  a  platform  for  all stakeholders  in the  tourism  and   hospitality industries  to  interact  and   transact  business  opportunities. 

Addressing the media in New Delhi today, the Tourism Minister said that India with its great potential in tourism and hospitality sector needs to dramatically increase the foreign tourist footfall and reap the benefits. The Minister added that the Tourism Ministry has been conducting foreign road shows, releasing theme based promotional videos and thus, the ITM 2018 will be a big step which will get buyers from all over the world. Mr Alphons also hoped that through ITM 2018, India can showcase its hidden destinations  to the world, especially to emerging tourism markets like China, Latin America, and Japan etc. The Minister also hoped that with this event, the Government's aim of bringing the Tourist footfall to double in next three years shall be fulfilled. The Minister thanked the entire Tourism Industry for coming together and for their active involvement in materializing this global event which has been due for a long time. The Tourism Minister, during the Consultative meeting with States  held prior to the briefing, urged all the states to come up quickly with unique promotional videos etc. so that it can be showcased for better publicity.

Speaking at the event, the Tourism Secretary, Ms Rashmi Verma, said that ITM will be the best platform for the States to showcase their products to international buyers, opinion makers and bloggers and attract more tourists to their respective states. The Secretary added that till now only few states like Kerala, Rajasthan were conducting the Tourism Marts and only a few states have participated in International Marts.  Therefore, ITM 2018 will be a great opportunity for other states who neither have their own Marts nor ever participated in any International Marts to showcase themselves in front of the International buyers. Smt. Verma also conveyed that the Overseas Tourism Offices will make the list of buyers which shall be verified and finalized by a Committee which has all the Tourism/Hospitality associations so that only genuine buyers take part in the Mart.