Promoting NE As Tourist Destination Intl Tourism Mart begins in Guwahati
Source: The Sangai Express / Agencies

Guwahati, January 18 2013: The three-day International Tourism Mart began in Guwahati today with an aim to promote North-East as an attractive tourist destination for foreign tourists.

"This is the first event of its kind ever organised in India.

The main purpose of the Mart is to help people from other countries get to know the unexplored paradise that the North-Eastern region is," Union Tourism Secretary Parvez Dewan told reporters here.

The event will be formally inaugurated tomorrow by Assam Governor J B Patnaik and Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism K Chiranjeevi.

Apart from the seven north-eastern states, the Mart is also highlighting the tourism potential of West Bengal and Sikkim.

The Mart would see 85 buyer delegates from 23 countries.

It would be attended by Cambodia's Vice Minister for Tourism Kousoum Saroeuth, Lao Democratic Peoples' Republic's Deputy Minister for Culture and Tourism Savankhon Razmontry and Singapore Tourism Board Executive Director Chee-Pey Chang.

Besides cultural events and technical sessions, there would also be 90 Business-to-Business round tables where discussion for closer relations among travel fraternity and hospitality players of North Eastern region, West Bengal, other states of India, Europe, North America, SAARC and ASEAN regions, the Tourism Secretary said.

The Mart would be followed by an Adventure Tourism Operators' Conference organised by the Assam government on January 20.Familiarisation tours of North-East states for foreign delegates have been set up for January 21-28 .

The number of international tourists who visited the North-East went up to 58,920 in 2011 from 50,950 in 2010, Dewan said.

Meanwhile, the number of tourists to north-east from other states of India stood at 63.74 lakh in 2011 as against 61.66 lakh in the previous year.

"We have to ensure that this event leads to much greater numbers in days to come," he said.

Union Additional Director General for Tourism A K Gupta said while centrally-funded tourism projects in the North-East have got delayed due to factors like limited working season and infrastructure problem, the progress is better than in other parts of the country.

"Besides, the funds released for the projects in North-East is also greater than in other states," Gupta said, adding that a separate Tourism Advisory Council for North-East could be taken up in future.

The Mart is also expected to promote greater tourists flow among people within the region, Assam Principal Secretary (Tourism) H S Das said.

"People from North-East are great travellers but they generally visit Goa and Kanyakumari or go to Singapore and Thailand for overseas visits.

Very few people from Assam visit Kohima or a few from Mizoram go to Arunachal Pradesh," Das said.

"For the rest of the country and the world, we want to promote North-East as an attractive tourist destination with Assam as a corridor," he said.

The state government is spending around Rs 4 crore for the Mart, Das said.

Speaking on the occasion, Manipur Tourism Secretary Rajesh Kumar said while his state faces problems of militancy, there is no threat for tourists.

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