The 8th International Tourism Mart (ITM) – 2019 recently held at Imphal from 23 – 25 November, 2019 witnessed the participation of 34 foreign delegates from over 19 countries along with 49 domestic delegates representing the travel industry.
The second day of the ITM kicked off with presentations made by all the 8 North East State Tourism Departments i.e., Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim who made a presentation to showcase their tourist destinations.
After the presentations, a panel discussion was moderated by the Rupinder Brar, Addl. Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India wherein eminent panelists comprising of Chetan Gupta, representing Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India, Arjit Purkayastha, a leading Tour Operator of the North East Region and Swadesh Kumar, President, Adventure Tour Operators Association of India deliberated on “Sustainable Tourism as an engine for Economic Growth and Employment”.
Madhya Pradesh being the paired State of Manipur has been invited to participate in the ITM 2019 under the “Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat” initiative and made a presentation to a group of around 150 local University and College students who got an insight about the tourist attractions, fairs & festivals, handicrafts, culture, historical monuments, cuisine, wildlife, adventure activities etc. of the State of Madhya Pradesh.
All the delegates of the ITM 2019 participated in the inaugural function of the Sangai Festival later in the evening at Bhagyachandra Open Air Theatre (BOAT) which was inaugurated by Chief Minister of Manipur, N. Biren Singh in the presence of 8 Head of Missions of ASEAN countries. All the invitees witnessed a well choreographed Manipuri cultural programme and the day ended with a dinner hosted by the Government of Manipur.
