Shri. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister, Kerala will inaugurate the Kerala Travel Mart at Kochi on 5th May. Buyers from 69 countries are expected to take part.
Kochi : Kerala Chief Minister Shri Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the eleventh edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) on 5th May . The KTM is the country’s largest tourism industry congregation. The programme is being organised amid hopes of a revival in post-pandemic travel.
The conclave is expected to boost Kerala’s revival of the tourism sector by attracting visitors from across the world after two years of slide owing to Covid-19.
Shri P.A. Mohamed Riyas, Minister for Tourism, Kerala will chair the inaugural function at Grand Hyatt in Bolgatty, Kochi. The event will have business meets on May 6 and 7 at Sagara and Samudrika convention centres at Willingdon Island. In continued spirit of giving a fillip to local tourism, the public will be given access to the pavilions at both venues for five hours from One in the noon on 8th May.
Sustaining the spirit of the recent launch of the state government’s ‘Keravan Kerala’, this edition of KTM will highlight caravan and adventure tourism as its focal themes along with internationally-acclaimed responsible tourism. As a curtain raiser Kerala Tourism will conduct a sample show of the second edition of the IPL-modelled Champions Boat League.
Organisers have charted a pre-KTM tour for vloggers and media delegates from within the country and abroad to show the beauty and variety of Kerala’s destinations. A post-event tour will also be arranged f\for select buyers attending the mart.
The upcoming mart, which is to be totally paper-free in a space of 1.5 lakh square feet, will feature exhibitions on key tourism themes. Many international and domestic buyers have registered for KTM, which is all set to give prominence to the government’s tourism initiatives in upstate Malabar.
Last year, the KTM had organized a virtual summit in March, facilitating more than 7,000 business meets that enabled the travel industry to take major strides in overcoming the Covid-triggered economic crisis. That online event saw a virtual buyers’ meet with participants from across the world, including India.
The 2000-constituted KTM Society, which is the country’s biggest organization in the travel and tourism segment, has been working towards reviving the industry since the spread of the novel coronavirus in the state two years ago.