The 11th edition of the three-day India Travel Mart (ITM), a travel and tourism exhibition, that kicked off here Saturday, has four foreign countries and nearly 60 corporate houses participating.

ITM is hosted by Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO) in association with Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir as partner states and Malaysia, Dubai and Thailand as partner countries.

'ITM will bring the best packages to Chandigarh for summer holidays, business trips, family holidays, honeymooners and adventure and eco-tourism places. Last year 54 companies had participated in ITM here but this time nearly 60 companies, from all across the country are participating in this event,' Ajay Gupta, director of ITM, told IANS Saturday.

'Main focus of the exhibition is on making travel more interesting and hassle free. There is a wide variety of attractive packages and unique tourist destinations to choose from. We see a lot of potential in Chandigarh and Punjab market and expect whopping business during these three days,' said Gupta.

ITM's participants included Malaysia, Dubai, Thailand, Turkey, CITCO, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and leading hotels, resorts and travel agencies.

'This edition of ITM would diversify the travel experience. The main highlights of our exhibition would include special offerings of pilgrimage tourism, adventure tourism, eco tourism, health tourism and wildlife tourism,' stated Gupta.

Source: Sify.com