India’s own Global Travel Mart

MOT will focus on both inbound and outbound markets at the muchawaited Global Travel Mart, the first one in India on a world-class scale.

The Ministry of Tourism is whipping up support for the India Global Travel Mart scheduled for January 2017. Vinod

Zutshi, Secretary-Tourism, Government of India, revealed the plans they have for what is perceived as India’s biggest B2B travel exhibition. “We plan to take the delegates taking part in the India Global Travel Mart for a Fam around the country and will follow the same format in the Tourism Investment Summit that we are going to organise this year,” he revealed.

The scale and format of the mart will be like that of ITB and WTM, Zutshi said. “While it would support inbound tourism, we would like to have the presence of outbound as well, and that’s how it will be global. This plan has emerged from various rounds of discussions we’ve had with the travel trade as well as Federation of Associations of Indian Travel and Hospitality (FAITH). On the other hand, at the Investors Summit, which we are doing with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), we’d invite all the state governments, and it will be organised at a very large scale.” The Ministry of Tourism working tirelessly to put India on the global tourism map, he claimed. For this reason, the ministry is also organising a Tourism Investors Summit with CII from September 21-23, 2016, at Vigyan Bhawan New Delhi. “The agenda is to have discussions at every level with state governments, CII, knowledge partners etc, where we are also expecting a lot of MoUs to be signed," Zutshi said, adding that the Investors Summit will assist in driving private investments for tourism's development.

The following month, the Buddhist Conclave will be held from October 3-5 in Sarnath, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya, he informed. “As many as 500 monks from ASEAN countries will be attending the three-day event," he shared. Zutshi added that the International Tourism Mart (ITM) 2016 will also be held the same month in Imphal, Manipur to boost visitors to the Northeastern states.

Speaking about India's participation in WTM London from November 7-9, he shared, “We are going to partner with WTM London in November 2016. Also, we are planning to be the partner country for ITB Berlin in 2018.”

We plan to take the delegates at the India Global Travel Mart for a familiarisation trip around the country and will follow the same format in the Tourism Investment Summit this year. Vinod Zutshi Secretary-Tourism Government of India