The Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) — one of India’s biggest tourism meet — has kickstarted with governor Arif Mohammed Khan drawing attention to the need to highlight domestic tourism for better collaboration among states and greater understanding between people.

The event of 11th KTM will look at engaging close to 500 international buyers and 650 domestic buyers, facilitating 15,000 meetings between buyers and exhibitors.

“A better industry-level co-ordination in hospitality and transportation, and an inter-state understanding to rationalise and simplify taxes and tariffs, will help in leveraging the true potential of our domestic market in tourism,” he said, declaring open the virtual summit through videoconferencing. Scheduled from 1-5 March, KTM aims to revitalise the state’s travel sector in the post-Covid scenario.

Stressing on the need to embrace the spirit of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India) by treating domestic tourism as the mainstay of the industry when global air travel is facing restrictions, the Governor said, “Let tourism enable people of every part of India to understand and value each other so that we strengthen our cultural unity as a nation.”

Khan complimented Kerala’s tourism projects aimed at making it a “complete and different” destination with focus on cultural heritage. “We need to re-configure our business strategy by emphasising on safety and security so as to meet the post-pandemic global demands and aspirations,” he added.