Kaptan Singh Solanki, Governor of Tripura, inaugurated the “7th International Tourism Mart for the North-East States” in the presence of Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism K.J Alphons and the Chief Minister of Tripura Biplab Kumar Deb in Agartala, Tripura Yesterday. Minister for Tourism of Tripura Pranjit Singha Roy, Secretary, M/o Tourism Rashmi Verma, Director General (Tourism) Satyajeet Rajan and other dignitaries from Central Ministries and North Eastern States were present. The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India has organized the Mart in association with the Department of Tourism, Government of Tripura and the North Eastern States.
Delivering inaugural address, Solanki dwelt upon many new initiatives taken by the Government of India for the promotion of tourism in recent years. He said that development of the tourism sector helps in generating meaningful employment and means of income generation for a large number of people, especially the youth of the state.
While Deb in his speech said that the state government of Tripura has outlined a vision of transforming the state into a model state in the span of next three years. He added that robust development of tourism sector is one of the most significant components towards the development of the state. He also said that with the support from the Union ministry of Tourism, the state government is taking strides for holistic development of the Tourism sector.
In his address, Alphons emphasised on the overall promotion of tourism in the North eastern states and said that the government of India has started many new programmes and schemes for the development of tourism in north eastern states. The Tourism sector has reached a new height during last 4 years.
Verma in her opening remarks said that the varied topography of the North East region, with its rich heritage make it an attractive tourist destination and hoped that the deliberations of the Mart will serve its purpose in the promotion of tourism in NE States. She lauded the State of Tripura for having the largest number of tourists in NE region last year.
A total of 53 foreign delegates from 18 countries namely Australia, Canada, China, France, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, UAE and USA are participating in the Mart. These include Tour Operators & Travel Agents and Media Representatives, Journalists, Travel Writers and Bloggers. Besides the foreign delegates, 26 domestic Tour Operators from other parts of the country and 78 sellers from the North Eastern States are also participating in the Mart. Representatives of State Tourism Departments of the North East States are also present to showcase their tourism destinations and to interact with the delegates. They are engaged in Business-to-Business meetings with sellers from the North Eastern Region. This will enable the tourism product suppliers from the region to reach out to international and domestic buyers, with the objective of promoting tourism to the region.
