The 11th Kerala Travel Mart got off to a start on Sunday as Governor Arif Mohammed Khan inaugurated the country’s biggest tourism meet with a call to highlight domestic tourism for better collaboration among States and greater understanding between people.
“A better industry-level coordination in hospitality and transportation and an inter-State understanding to rationalize and simplify taxes and tariffs will help in leveraging the true potential of our domestic market in tourism,” he said, declaring open the March 1-5 virtual summit, through videoconferencing.
“Let tourism enable people of every part of India to understand and value each other so that we strengthen our cultural unity as a nation,” he said. The Governor stressed the need to re-configure business strategy by emphasizing on safety and security so as to meet the post-pandemic global demands and aspirations.
V. P. Joy, Chief Secretary, chairing the ceremony, noted that the ongoing vaccination, which is to pick up in Kerala from March, would help the State get out of the pandemic — to the benefit of its tourism.
Principal Secretary, Tourism, Rani George, Tourism Directori V. R. Krishna Teja, India Tourism Regional Director (Chennai) D Venkatesan and KTM Society president Baby Mathew Somatheeram spoke. Close to 500 international buyers and 650 domestic buyers are attending the meeting.
