An exhibitor works at the "India Tourism Mart" in New Delhi, India, on Sept. 18, 2018. The first ever "India Tourism Mart" was organized in India's capital New Delhi from Sept. 16 to Sept. 18 in a bid to showcase and promote India's tourist destinations to the world. (Xinhua/Zhang Naijie)
NEW DELHI, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The first ever "India Tourism Mart" is being organized in India's capital New Delhi from Sept. 16 to Sept. 18 in a bid to showcase and promote India's tourist destinations to the world.
Around 225 international buyers from across the world such as north America, west Europe, east Asia, Latin America, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries are participating in the three-day event.
The foreign travel and tour-operators from as many as 60 countries have congregated at the event held on the lines of major international tourism marts.
The event provides an opportunity to the buyers to see the world-class tourism facilities available in India such as airports, hotels, tourist destinations, upcoming facilities, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions facilities), possibility in the field of adventure tourism and other niche products.
Around 225 stalls have been provided to the sellers to enable them to interact with the buyers.
During the inauguration ceremony, the country's Tourism Minister K.J. Alphons said that India's inability in the past to garner Chinese tourists in great numbers remained a concern for the south Asian country. He assured not to leave any stone unturned to attract tourist from neighbouring China in hordes.
He also vowed to organize more frequent road shows in various Chinese cities to make Chinese people aware about India as Indian government turned its focus on Chinese tourists.
"Our big focus is going to be on China. It's extremely important that we have exchange of ideas and meet people... I think India is just incredible and Chinese are going to love it. We want to do promotions in China in a big way because there is so much China and India share together," said the minister.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, the Indian minister said that China was the only country where India had hired a public relation agency to advertise Indian tourism in various Chinese cities. India has already held several tourism events in three Chinese cities, last month, and now the Indian government is planning to increase the number of publicity events in China.
Last year, India received more than 10 million foreign tourists. However, just nearly 240,000 of them were Chinese. India seeks to grab at least 1 percent share of China's strong 130-million outbound travelers as India plans to double foreign tourists arrival to 20 million by 2020.
India has already extended "simpler" e-visa facilities for tourists coming from more than 160 countries including those from China. This category has recorded a 57 percent growth over the last year due to its easy procedure. Last year, 1.69 million foreign tourists were granted electronic visa.
