IT News
Ahmedabad, Sept 3
Manipur Tourism conducted a roadshow and organized the curtain-raiser for the 2019 edition of the Shirui Lily Festival and the Manipur Sangai Festival at the Travel & Tourism Fair (TTF) 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 which included tour operators, potential investors, MICE providers and potential travelers at the event. The event highlighted the varied attractions of the two festivals to visitors at the fair and gave them an opportunity to have 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.
A variety of performances like the famed Raas Leela, Khamba Thoibi, Lai Haraoba and the Kabui Naga dances formed part of the showcase of Manipur’s rich cultural heritage at the event. As part of the roadshow, artistes adorned in Radha & Lord Krishna’s attires distributed promotional materials and information on Manipur Sangai Festival and Shirui Lily Festival 2019 to visitors and stakeholders present at the event. Visitors thronged in for selfies and group photographs along with the artistes and it was a major crowd puller at the venue. 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.
Commenting on the event, Dr. Yumnam Suraj Singh, Deputy Director, Department of Tourism said, “The visitor arrivals to the state during our Shirui Lily Festival and Manipur Sangai Festival exceeded our expectations last year. We are targeting Ahmedabad as part of our promotional campaign for these two festivals for the first time. It is quite encouraging to see the number of queries we have received during this event and we wish to convert these numbers into visit figures to our jeweled land. We invite travelers from this part of the country to come to Manipur and enjoy our varied attractions during our festivals.”
Manipur receives the maximum number of visitors during the Shirui Lily Festival and the Manipur Sangai Festival every year. The curtain raiser for these two festivals is 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.
