CM to inaugurate Kerala Travel Mart tomorrow

Over 1,500 tour operators from across the world are expected to participate in the eighth edition of the Kerala Travel Mart, to be held in Kochi from Thursday.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will tomorrow formally inaugurate the three-day event (September 18-20) at which Union Tourism Minister Sripat Yasho Naik will the chief guest.
The mart will be held at Samudrika Convention Centre, Cochin Port Trust in Kochi, state Tourism Minister A P Anil Kumar told reporters here today.
"KTM will promote Kerala as the best tourism and business destination in the world. It will be a chance for tour operators and international buyers from new markets in the world to know the state better," he said.

He said promotional efforts this year extended to Facebook, Linkedln and YouTube besides live Twitter feeds and Tweet mirror were used to attract buyers.
"KTM 2014 is undoubtedly the great platform for B2B networking and our preparatory activities have been very successful. Although registration closed on July 15 for buyers, we are still getting more and more enquiries every day," he said.

KTM Society president Abraham George said around 282 international buyers from nearly 60 countries and 938 domestic buyers have confirmed participation this year.
"UK, Spain, Germany, France and Russia top the list of international buyers with around 25-30 from each country attending KTM 2014," he said.

The distinctive feature of this edition of KTM is participation from relatively new markets for Kerala like Australia, South Africa, Malaysia and a strong presence from Scandinavia, Netherlands, Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin American countries including Chile and Peru, he added.
Exhibitors at KTM 2014 will include hotels and resorts, tour operators, homestays, houseboat operators, Ayurveda resorts and centres, hotel management consultants, adventure tour operators, farmstays and tourism association.