Manipur Tourism conducted a road show and organized the curtain-raiser for the 2019 edition of the Shirui Lily Festival and the Manipur Sangai Festival at the Travel & Tourism Fair held at Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, from 30th August to 1st September, 2019. A team led by Dr Yumnam Suraj Singh, Deputy Director, Department of Tourism along with Dimitry Laishram and Bidyananda Hanjabam represented Manipur Tourism at the event.
The team interacted with over 2,000 visitors, including tour operators, potential investors, MICE providers and potential travelers. The event highlighted the varied attractions of the two festivals to visitors at the fair, and gave them an opportunity to enjoy a glimpse of the rich cultural heritage of Manipur. The team was conferred the TTF Excellence Award for Best Cultural Performance on the final day of the event.
The event generated queries from over 1000 tour operators and agents from across the country and facilitated connection with several stakeholders of the tourism industry in Gujarat as well as from other parts of India.
The curtain raiser for these two festivals was organised in Ahmedabad to create awareness amongst potential visitors about the State’s offerings as a tourist destination. The domestic tourist inflow was 1,16,652 in 2010-11, and in 2017-18 this figure increased to 1,64,483. Similarly, the foreign tourist inflow increased manifold from 431 in 2010-11 to 3,787 in 2017-18. In 2018-19, Manipur recorded 1, 66,032 domestic tourist arrivals and 9,794 foreign tourist arrivals.