Welcome to Kerala Travel Mart, the biennial event that showcases Kerala, Asia’s new age destination and India’s tourism Superbrand.
KTM is the only tourism event in the sub-continent that brings together the business fraternity and entrepreneurs behind the tourism products and services of Kerala.
It is today the largest gathering designed, planned and scheduled to facilitate meetings involving Buyers, Sellers, Media, Government Agencies and others.
KTM 2010, the sixth edition of the Kerala Travel Mart will be held from 23rd to 26th September, 2010 at Cochin. A completely new venue has been readied to stage a vibrant Kerala with many new entrants.
Know Kerala
To know Kerala you need to understand her unique geographical layout that made her what she is.
As on the map, Kerala is a strip of a state on the south- western edge of the Indian peninsula, just 650 km long and 120km at its widest. This land, sandwiched between the Arabian Sea to the west and a tropical mountain range to its east, is from where the monsoon starts (the rainy season for the rest of the Indian sub-continent).
Forty-four mountain rivers further cut up this tropical strip into fertile river deltas (that’s a river every 15 km) making Kerala a lush, wet and explosively fertile bit of real estate, distinctly different from the rest of India and the world.
This unique biosphere has given rise to such rare and unique herbs, spices, fruits and animals that it altered World History. For centuries Kerala was the most sought after destination worldwide being the birthplace of Pepper at a time when pepper was far more valuable than gold. Her liberal and intelligent rulers welcomed trade settlers and set up seaports from the days of King Solomon. Incidentally, the entire American continent was discovered by the western world in its frenzied quest for a direct sea route to Kerala ! That explains why Native Americans are mistakenly called Red Indians to this day.
As descendants of settlers from the Middle East, China, Europe and Africa since centuries mingled with the local populace, it gave rise to a multi-cultural mix that reflects in the everyday life here, even to this day. |