Sunday, June 26, 2011

Goa International Travel Mart to be held from October 21-23, 2011

The second edition of the Goa International Travel Mart (GITM) organised jointly by Department of Tourism, Government of Goa and Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) will be held at the Grand Hyatt in Bambolim from October 21-23, 2011. The theme for the Mart this year is ‘Unearth the Hidden Treasures of Goa.’ The organisers of the event have planned an aggressive marketing strategy to attract over 2500 trade visitors to GITM 2011, of which 450 will be hosted buyers. TravelBiz Monitor is once again the knowledge partner for this year’s event.

“We expect an even larger participation this year at GITM, which will benefit the entire industry in the state. The Mart was a great success last year and is now slated to be an annual event. GITM 2010 was a power-packed event which saw hosted buyer-seller interactive sessions, panel discussions and knowledge sharing sessions, networking dinners and FAM trips. The three-day event witnessed participation from over twelve countries including Singapore, South Africa, Canada, UK, Italy, Poland, Russia, and Brazil,” stated Swapnil Naik, Director, Goa Tourism.

Commenting on the second edition of the Mart, Richard Dias, Head - Business Development, Radioactive Entertainment, the official marketing agency of GITM said, “Through the theme, ‘Unearth the Hidden Treasures of Goa' the aim is to highlight Goa's unexplored regions. Goa as a destination has a variety of offerings and products which we hope to showcase through the Mart. We had 1,400 visitors at GITM 2010 and we are expecting a significant growth this year. Our promotional strategy will involve advertising campaigns in the major travel trade magazines and we will also be looking to organise road shows in the four metros, as well as cities like Ahmedabad and Kolkata, which are major markets for Goa.”

According to Dias, the Department of Tourism, Government of Goa and GTDC will be hosting approximately 450 buyers of which 150 will be international buyers for GITM 2011. Dias added, “We are also looking to bring in smaller single resort owners, as well as, stand alone and mid-sized resorts. We will try to ensure that the buyer-seller interaction at GITM 2011 is managed better and will make it easier for buyers and sellers to pre-fix meetings. GITM 2011 is going to be scaled up from 2010.”

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