The three-day India International Travel Mart (IITM) organised at Bengaluru concluded successfully, with Andhra Pradesh adding two awards to it’s tally – Best State for Religious Tourism and Best State for MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions). Day 1 of the event witnessed as many as 1000 enquiries regarding tourism opportunities at Tirupati while Visakhapatnam found favour with corporates searching for an off-beat destination to conduct business conferences. “The corporates wanted an alternative off-beat destination in India apart from Goa and thus we handed our own offering on a platter to them. As they showed interest in Visakhapatnam, numerous inquiries followed suit,” said Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority (APTA) CEO and Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) Managing Director (MD) Pravin Kumar. “Andhra Pradesh is one of the partner states of IITM whose objective is to provide opportunities for professionals from the tourism industry to meet and showcase a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to Indian and international travel professionals. This is an arena for people to meet, network, negotiate and conduct business,” added the APTA CEO. IITM was inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh Tourism and Culture department, principal secretary Praveen Kumar and APTDC MD Pravin Kumar.
