Kerala travel event expects record attendance

KOCHI - Billed as the biggest international travel event in the country, a three-day Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) 2010 starting Sep 23 is expected to be attended by a record 2,000 delegates from India and abroad, an organiser said Saturday.

Launched in 2000, this biennial event has become the flagship activity for promotion of Kerala tourism.

In its inaugural year, 160 sellers, 250 international buyers and 320 domestic buyers participated in the event. This year, the event is likely to see a record participation of 382 sellers, 551 international buyers and 1,621 domestic buyers.

The event will be held Sep 23-26 at the Bolgatty Palace Hotel at the Bolgatty Island here.

Speaking to reporters Saturday, KTM president Riaz Ahmed said the record registration by the buyers from different countries, including Poland, Finland, Mexico and South Africa, shows the global interest in Kerala tourism.

“’Athithi devo bhava’ is the theme of the mart this year,” Ahmed said.

At the KTM, the buyers include tour operators, travel agents, airlines, event managers, travel writers, media personnel or anyone who has the potential to buy services that the tourism industry of Kerala has to offer.

“The buyers and sellers co-ordination committee of KTM 2010 is introducing speed networking whereby all participants get to meet each other at least once for two-and-a-half minutes,” said Ahmed.

“This is a structured networking opportunity to ensure maximum number of introductions for both buyers and sellers,” said Ahmed.

According to the tourism department, in 2009, 5.57 lakh foreign tourists and 79.13 lakh domestic tourists visited Kerala. The state earned a total income of Rs.13,231 crore from tourism.

The figures for the first half of the present calendar year show that there has been an increase in tourist arrivals — both domestic and foreign — as compared to the same period last year.

During this period, foreign tourist arrivals grew by 13.90 percent to touch 3.35 lakh tourists and domestic tourist arrivals grew by 5.59 percent to reach 41 lakh, official figures show.

–Indo Asian News Service