KTM to show caravan tourism

The 11th Kerala Travel Mart (KTM), to be held from 5-7 May 2022, will be focusing on projecting the state as a hotspot for caravan tourism and also invigorate tourism in Malabar.

Nisha Verma

The upcoming Kerala Travel Mart will have stalls of private sellers as well as stalls of government entities associated with the tourism sector. KTM has 600 members. So far, nearly 500 domestic buyers and 150 international buyers have registered for the event.

The 11th edition of KTM will see Kerala being projected as a caravan tourism hotspot. Also, the focus will be on promotion of lesser explored regions of Malabar as well as advertising the state as a popular wedding destination will also be the focus of the biggest tourism buyer-seller conclave.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the KTM at Grand Hyatt in Bolgatty, while the venues for the subsequent proceedings will be Sagara and Samudrika convention centres at Willingdon Island.  “We have sellers who are into core tourism activities such caravan, plantation and backwater resorts, besides wedding destination and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions),” said V R  Krishna Teja, Kerala Tourism Director. Kerala plans to invigorate tourism in Malabar by renewing its focus on the travel map of the region, said Teja.

Jose Pradeep, Honorary Secretary, KTM, has said that travel is changing and caravan tourism has immense domestic and international tourism potential. This will aid in their promotion. He added that Kerala, with its idyllic landscape, had been rising in prominence as a wedding destination but restrictions on the sale of liquor in bars has been a disappointment. Thus, he informed that people have started moving to destinations such as Goa. Thus, they are trying to project Kerala as a wedding destination and bring the crowd back.

While earlier the focus was on domestic tourists, but now that international flights have resumed, KTM organisers will be targeting international visitors too.