Chief Minister to open Kerala Travel Mart tomorrow

Buyers from around the world to get a taste of State’s tourism products

The 10th edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) will kick off here on Thursday, showcasing before tourism stakeholders from 66 countries the swift resurgence of a State that witnessed devastating floods over a month ago.

That the State is going the extra mile to woo tourists is evident from the aggressive promotion of an array of experiential tourism products that are on offer at the mega business-to-business (B2B) event that will be inaugurated at Grand Hyatt here by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Union Minister of State for Tourism K.J. Alphons will be the chief guest at the mart where ‘Malabar and Responsible Tourism initiatives’ will be the theme.

Over 30,000 meetings among 1,600 buyers from around the world and 325 sellers of Kerala’s tourism products are expected from Friday to Sunday at Samudrika and Sagara Convention Centres on Willingdon Island. The public will be allowed entry free of cost on Sunday.

‘Apt opportunity’

“The around 400 stalls here would witness hard selling of a wide array of new and value-added products, from Muziris heritage project, Jatayu adventure centre, village, farm, ayurveda, yoga and responsible tourism initiative to Kochi emerging as a home port for cruise tourism,” Baby Mathew, president of KTM Society, told reporters here on Tuesday. “We see the travel mart as an apt opportunity to showcase before the world Kerala’s ability to overcome a calamity as grave as floods and landslips that shook the State in August,” he said.

“We had feared cancellations by many buyers, but their number grew to 545 from 66 countries - a 125% increase than KTM 2016. The number of domestic buyers too would see an increase to 1,090, a 75% increase,” Mr. Mathew said.

Key areas

The mart’s key areas of focus would be rainwater and energy conservation, reliance on domestic products, lesser usage of plastic and scientific garbage management.

There will be four seminars, besides exhibitions and business meets. Buyers would be taken on trips to tourism locales, to see for themselves road connectivity and infrastructure that have been restored.