High hopes for virtual Kerala Travel Mart summit

A virtual summit of the Kerala Travel Mart (KTM), considered to be the biggest tourism B2B meet in India, which is slated to be organised in tandem with the kicking in of the tourism season in the last quarter of 2021, could be the game changer in wooing tourists to the State once the COVID test positivity rate (TPR) stabilises.

The tourism sector, which brought in ₹45,000-crore revenue to Kerala in 2019-‘20, while providing direct employment to approximately 15 lakh people and indirect employment to another 10 lakh, recorded the maximum pandemic-related job losses.

KTM 2018

Tourism players are pinning hopes on the mart, considering the role KTM 2018 played in reviving the tourism sector which was battered by floods in August that year. “We will have to work extra hard this time, since the deluge was confined to Kerala, while COVID-19 has thrown the entire world into disarray. TPR must be brought down to at least 5%, so that tourists can confidently visit Kerala. Hosting of KTM will be a key step to re-ignite global interest in the State’s tourism sector that is neck-deep in crisis owing to the pandemic,” said a senior tourism official.

On its part, the KTM Society has set July 15 as the deadline to ensure 100% vaccination of the tourism workforce. “We are coordinating with regional bodies like Wayanad Tourism Organisation [WTO] and Thekkady Destination Promotion Council [TDPC] to hasten the vaccination drive,” said an office-bearer of the society.

“Simultaneously, a social media campaign has been launched to convince domestic and foreign tourists that it is safe to visit tourism locales in Kerala. In this circumstance, we hope to host the B2B mart in the last quarter of 2021, coinciding with the peak tourist season. The virtual KTM held in 2020 following a lull in the first wave of the pandemic evinced interest even among tour operators from countries which once showed little interest in Kerala, thus helping open new markets. Subsequently, the inflow of domestic tourists to the State resumed, so much so that locales like Munnar witnessed unusually long traffic snarls,” he added.

Micro-destinations

“The difference in the global tourism pattern post-COVID would be visitors preferring to visit micro-destinations in small groups. For this, the third wave must be averted at any cost, and guests who have taken vaccines must be permitted into the country,” said Jose Pradeep, secretary, KTM Society.

The arrival of foreign tourists has now been limited to those seeking Ayurveda and wellness packages thanks to visa curbs, said E.M. Najeeb, president, Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry. “Everyone is banking hopes on domestic tourists arriving in large numbers from September,” he added.