KOCHI: The 12th edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM), which concluded on Sunday, created a record by registering over 75,000 business-to-business (B2B) meetings during its three days of proceedings. The biennial event had clocked around 55,000 B2B meetings in 2022.
According to KTM Society president Jose Pradeep, KTM 2024 paved the way for the tourism sector’s vital transformation through cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI).
“The interactions were made possible by scanning a simple, user-friendly QR code. As many as 2,000 domestic buyers from different states and about 800 foreign buyers from 75 countries converged at the event at Sagara-Samudrika Convention Centre in Willingdon Island,” he said.
KTM 2024, inaugurated by Chief Minister Shri Pinarayi Vijayan, featured 347 stalls on a sprawling area of one-and-a-half lakh sq feet, adhering to strict green protocols.
KTM 2024 features the highest-ever total of 2,839 buyers (vis-a-vis the standing record of 1,305 in 2018). Of them, those in the domestic category add up to 2,035. Of the 808 foreign buyers from 76 countries at KTM 2024, 67 are from the UK, 60 from the Gulf and 55 from the US.
While the buyers from Russia total 34, those from the rest of Europe total 245. There are 41 buyers from Africa, while the others are from East Asia.
The 12th edition of KTM had its special focus on selling Kerala as a wedding destination.
Meanwhile, experts at KTM opined that Kerala tourism will reach a new level if the potential of the state’s plantation region is fully utilised.