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— Nagara Gopal

Visitors at the three-day “India International Travel Mart’ which began in Hyderabad on Friday.

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, Dec. 5 The travel and tourism sector has seen cancellations between 25 per cent and 30 per cent, after the recent Mumbai attacks, according to Mr Rohit Hangal, Director, India International Travel Mart (IITM).

Mr Hangal said: “To get people to travel again, hotels and operators are concentrating on the domestic market, whose size is around 175 million travellers.”

He suggested that the Union Government should popularise individual destinations rather than just concentrate on promoting brand India.

“Since India is such a big country and has so much of variety to offer in terms of holiday and tourist destinations, the Government should take note of individual tourism destinations and popularise them across the world,” he added.

“Participants from 15 Indian States and five countries are participating in this year’s IITM,” Mr Hangal told reporters after the inauguration here on Friday.

The 39th edition is being held from December 5 to 7 at People’s Plaza, Necklace Road. The event is being organised by Travel Media Networks in association with Andhra Pradesh Tourism.

The participating States include Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, among others.

Mr Hangal said that IITM’s objective is to get people connected with the tourism sector in one room to showcase their respective State’s tourism potential and also the packages they offer.

He also said that there is an exclusive international section as India has emerged to be one of the fastest growing markets for international destinations.

Around 8,000 visitors are expected to visit IITM over the next three days.

More Stories on : Tourism | Andhra Pradesh

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