Kathmandu, November 24:

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) lent its presence at the China International Travel Mart (CITM) 2008 from November 20-23 in Shanghai.

CITM is the largest and most influential travel trade show in Asia held alternately in Kunming and Shanghai every year. Buyers from all over the world go there to understand the market potential, interact with business community, set business tie-ups and ultimately materialise deals.

NTB got good response and was flooded with queries from media persons, travel trade sector and Chinese visitors on various issues of Nepali tourism. The Nepali travel trade team participating in the exhibition also got good response from various buyers and travel trade related people of various regions, including both China and international ones, and secured many business deals.

South Asian Holidays Pvt Ltd, AMS Holidays Pvt Ltd, Saathi Nepal Travel & Tours Pvt Ltd and Shuang Qi Tours Pvt Ltd represented Nepal at the Mart.

Shanghai is an economic, financial, shipping and travel centre which attracts a very high number of tourists every year and is inhabited by many people from various parts of the world, aside from the Chinese. A fast developing commercial hub of the world, it attaches great importance to developing international travel by making itself a prominent centre of outbound tourism. Many Chinese people expressed deep interest in Nepal and said that they considered Nepal as one of their preferred destinations, said NTB. The Nepal stand showcased Nepal’s iconic tourism products and attracted great all-round attention.

Around 40,000 visitors visited the Nepal stand during the exhibition. There were 31 domestic provincial exhibitions groups, 48 domestic tourism enterprise groups and 238 overseas exhibitor groups comprising 2,648 booths in the exhibition. In total, 106 countries (regions) participated in the exhibition setting a record in CITM. According to NTB, more than 1,300 overseas buyers from various countries all around the world attended CITM 2008.