The State government has extended its support to the proposed maiden business to business (B2B) meet to be organised by the Kerala State Homestay and Tourism Association (KeralaHATS) at Bolgatty Palace for three days from May 15 exclusively showcasing homestays and service villas.
Kerala HATS proposes to make the B2B meet an annual affair. Buoyed by the support a preliminary meeting held here on Thursday decided to organise meeting of homestay and service villa operators in all tourism destinations in the State to ensure maximum participation. “The meeting decided to ensure the participation of maximum number of travel agents and tour operators to popularise homestays, especially among tourists from north Indian States,” said M.P. Sivadattan, director, KeralaHATS.
The event is likely to feature 400-odd stalls, including about 100 by sellers and around 150 by various tourism-related institutions. Since every speculative report of an epidemic outbreak or a financial meltdown abroad tend to keep international tourists away, the survival of homestay operators depend on domestic tourists. So, major tour operators, travel agents, and tourism department officials from 24 States will be invited to the meet.
“The fact is that the outside world knows little about our homestays. So, we aim to disseminating information about homestays and the experience they offer. We hope that the meet will be mutually beneficial generating business for homestays here as well as for the tourism industry of the participating States,” Mr. Sivadattan said.
The meet proposes to market the homestay products of each district with homestays in different regions offering different experience. Though there are only around 300-400 licensed homestay entrepreneurs and 50-60 service villa operators, the meet aims at showcasing over a 1,000 entrepreneurs.
“We will utilise the run up to the event as an opportunity to encourage operators who are yet to take licence to do so,” he said.
