America's gem festival of the year - the Tucson international gem show - successfully ended in February. It began 54 years ago as a class room exhibition of gems and minerals designed for the public by a geology professor at the Arizona State University USA. Today it has grown to become the world's largest gem-jewelry-mineral-fossil show.
Every new year season (January - February), the desert city of Tucson begins to dazzle with a myriad of colors as thousands of exhibitors and dealers from across the world display their glittering precious stones.
Major gem exhibits at Tucson convention centers and hotels are the AGTA (American Gem Traders Association), GJX (Gem and Jewelry Exchange) show and the WGJ (World Wide Gem and Jewelry) show. Among these AGTA and GJX are the most popular with over 2000 exhibitors at each show. Exhibitors form the United States, Europe and Asia dominate the show. Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Myanmar, China, and Japan are represented in different pavilions at the major gem shows.
The Sri Lankan exhibitors numbering over 100 exhibitors participate at two major shows in Tucson. Having participated for over 30 years, many Sri Lankan dealers do extremely well in promoting Sri Lanka's top quality blue sapphires, padmaraga and other gem stones. Also many lapidary dealers succeed in getting quotas of cutting orders fro factories thereby generating more employment in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) paved the way for Sri Lanka's participation in Tucson initially with four exhibitors. The number grew steadily and today it has risen to more than 100 dealers taking part in the Tucson festival.
In addition a multitude of gem and mineral and fossil shows are held in small hotels and motels around the city. An array of precious stones including diamonds, emeralds, sapphire and jade is a boon to buyers in selecting the best at competitive prices.
More than 50,000 buyers, many of them from the USA, Europe and Japan attend Tucson gem and jewelry festival. Visitors find traveling easier with an excellent shuttle bus service connecting the gem shows. The 38 shows are within easy reach by the Garnet route, Sapphire route, Emerald route, B-Line, A-Line, and many more shuttles. The buyers shop through the entries during the two week festival. Small dealers exhibitors earn an income at motels and wayside boutiques.
Sri Lanka gem dealers should do their best in promoting Facets Sri Lanka - the nations's gem festival. It needs to reach the level of a major international gem show.
This country has much to learn from the Tucson Gem Show in finding greater opportunities to promote the island's precious stones.
