Curtains came down on the eighth edition of the Kerala Travel Mart that concluded here with sellers of Kerala’s tourism products claiming that they did more than expected business with confirmed buyers from India and abroad.
The three-day mart saw 40,000 business sittings between the sellers and potential buyers instead of the expected 30,000, said Abraham George, president of Kerala Travel Mart Society. The three-day-long mart, which is said to be the biggest tourism mart in India, saw participation from 861 domestic and 241 international buyers and 255 sellers.
The sellers included adventure tour operators, ayurveda centres, resorts, hotels, homestays, amusement parks, convention centres, hotel and event management consultants, houseboat operators, specialty hospitals, museums, travel and tour operators and more. All together, buyers from 45 countries checked out stalls and did business.
Some of the key issues faced by the tourism industry came up for discussion and suggestions were forwarded by experts. They urged State and Central governments to formulate clear and long-term policies to ensure sustainable growth of the tourism industry. Suman Billa, secretary of Kerala Tourism cited how local artistes, artisans, farmers and self-help groups benefited from responsible tourism initiatives.
The travel industry expressed keen interest in the prestigious spice route project which connects 31 countries which traded with Kerala over 2,000 years ago.
Village Tourism and Kerala as a wedding destination were positioned as prime areas of focus in the mart and this elicited good response from buyers. Live demos of village life too were shown. Similar to hosting wedding tourism in Kerala, international MICE was identified as a key offering of Kerala.
At a media conference, Mr. Billa said that the Spice Route project would take tourism in Kerala to the next level of orbit.
He spoke of how buyers were screened using a sound procedure to ensure that they held meetings with sellers and brought business to the State.
Kerala Tourism is moving from Europe-centric to a level where guests are being wooed from Latin America, Eastern Europe, the U.S., Australia, Japan, Middle East, and Malaysia. The focus will be on China from the next season.
To a question on the hospitality sector’s concern over State’s new liquor policy, he said that the issue has got a social angle as well.
