Jaipur: The first-ever domestic travel mart on Saturday got off to a good start even as initial assessment of state tourism department indicated the number of actual buyers may not have reached the mandated 200 which was a part of the agreement between the state government and the organizing body Federation of Hospitality, Tourism Rajasthan (FHTR).Many of the 150 sellers of tourist products and services participating in the exhibition said most of the pre-scheduled meetings materialized and in some cases, they conducted more meetings than they were prepared for.S Ghosh who has come from Jaisalmer to participate as a seller, said that he got more buyers than planned. “I am quite happy to meet more buyers than I was expecting. The number of people travelling within the country is fast increasing and they now constitute a major segment. In this background, the domestic travel mart is a well-thought out strategy,” added Ghosh.Rajasthan is the second state after Kerala to conduct a business-to-business (B2B) exhibition dedicated to promote domestic tourism. In the state budget, chief minister Vasundhara Raje had proposed to a domestic travel mart in a PPP mode.“This is a first experience for us. We are overall happy with the way the event has shaped up. There is an issue with regard to the number of buyers. The organisers have counted the media personnel and blog writers brought from Delhi and other places as buyers. We will sit across the table and clear the confusion,” said the tourism department official.On their part, the organisers have justified including the outside media and blog writers as buyers.While there is no word on the next edition of Rajasthan Domestic Tourism Mart, other officials from tourism department said that they will visit the Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) to be held a couple of months later and understand the PPP model they have adopted to refine RTDM.While the mart attracted all the known names in the hospitality sector, participation from heritage properties was missing. “Rajasthan sells heritage. Equal importance should be given to the heritage segment as well,” said a participant.

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