KTM 2024 aims to boost Kerala’s global tourism appeal

“We have nearly 355 sellers, and approximately 52,000 appointments are scheduled to take place over three days.” – S Swaminathan.

With Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) just around the corner, it promises to showcase the best of Kerala, enabling new discoveries. By bringing together exhibitors and buyers from across the globe, KTM aims to foster a better travel culture and drive progress in the tourism industry. To gain more insight, T3 connected with S Swaminathan, Secretary – KTM Society.

Swaminathan emphasized that Kerala has carved its niche as a global wellness destination with its Ayurveda and wellness initiatives, which are well-complemented by responsible tourism efforts, rich festivals, rituals, and the growing array of participatory tourism products. According to him, more young talent is happily engaging in sustainable tourism development.“There has been tremendous response to KTM 2024, and interest in participation continues to pour in from all corners of the trade. Unfortunately, due to infrastructure limits, we are forced to stick to our set plans for this edition,” expressed Swaminathan.

KTM plays a crucial role in promoting Kerala on the global tourism map by creating networking opportunities, providing a platform to showcase new innovations, and developing marketing strategies in collaboration with the Kerala Government and like-minded trade organizations, said Swaminathan. Additionally, KTM offers training sessions for beginners to elevate the overall visitor experience.

Discussing challenges, Swaminathan said, “We are preparing ourselves to compete with the challenges and to create a sustainable win-win situation for both Kerala and its competitors. KTM has showed a new trend in the everchanging marketing strategies by adapting the new waves.”

Swaminathan noted that this can be achieved by attracting tourists not just by organizational efforts, but with a combination of word-of-mouth promotion from visitors, trade shows, and promotional campaigns in untapped markets. The same can be also done by making non-residential Malayali as the brand ambassadors for Kerala, where KTM takes the initiative by inviting the world where the partner can meet, interact and understand.

Currently, KTM in association with State Govt. and various trade partners, are focussing to create year-round attractions through community involvement by adapting the latest technologies & trends, seamless connectivity to the key markets, and low cost marketing techniques, etc.

When asked about the response to KTM 2024, Swaminathan said, “KTM has been very encouraging year after year, and this year it is even more promising. We have the highest number of registrations from both international and domestic participants. Nearly 800 international and 2,000 domestic buyers have already reconfirmed their participation, and we expect a very promising response from sellers showcasing a wide range of products.”

“We have nearly 355 sellers, and approximately 52,000 appointments are scheduled to take place over three days. Each buyer will attend 20 appointments a day for the first two days and 10 on the third day, ensuring every seller receives significant attention,” Swaminathan shared.

He further explained that KTM 2024 has introduced a mobile application to facilitate hassle-free data analysis. Appointments will be completed through QR scanning after each meeting, and the app will function both online and offline.

Additionally, KTM is not issuing passes, instead, each seller and buyer can generate their own passes. “We have envisaged pre-KTM FAM trips for media, foreign tour operators, and domestic tour operators across Kerala, along with nearly 14 post-event tours,” concluded Swaminathan.