JAIPUR: Rajasthan was expecting 50 million tourists to visit the desert state by the year end, meeting its 2020 target, a senior official said on Thursday. The state had received 47 million tourists in 2017."The target of 50 million tourist arrivals by 2020 in the state is likely to be met by the end of this year. The state has already witnessed over 47 million tourist arrivals by the end of 2017," said state tourism director Pradeep Kumar Borar."The state witnessed more than 20% growth in arrivals of domestic and foreign tourists in the first quarter of this year. The hotel industry had an occupancy of almost 65% in the state in 2016-17," he said.Borar made the remarks during a news conference here on the eve of the opening of a two-day 'Rajasthan Domestic Travel Mart' (RDTM) on Friday.The RDTM would be organised from July 20 to July 22 during which several B2B meetings would be held at the Birla Convention Centre here, he said.Senior vice president of the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism of Rajasthan, Randhir Vikram Singh said as many as 200 domestic tour operators and travel writers from across the country would be participating in the event."The RDTM 2018 will witness around 69,00 pre-scheduled, structured B2B meetings over two days," he said.Singh added that the RDTM was focused on developing and promoting lesser known destinations like Shekhawati, Bikaner , Khimsar, Luni, Jaisalmer and Kumbhalgarh.

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