THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General has questioned the regular government grant to Kerala Travel Mart without assessing the gains from such an exercise.
KTM office-bearers, however, counter it saying that the gains of such an exploratory business-to-business meet cannot be easily quantified.
“We had introduced Kerala as a wedding destination during KTM 2014. As many as 234 international and 854 domestic buyers attended KTM 2014 but it does not mean that there is going to be a sudden demand for the state as a tourism destination. The demand will take some time, say two-three years to emerge,” said Abraham George, president of the KTM Society.
Further, Mr George said the success of KTM was reflected in the increasing tourist footfalls with each passing year. “You cannot increase tourism inflow by doing nothing,” he said.
According to him, Kerala markets itself in three ways. One, through the highly feted website of the Tourism Department, www.keralatourism.org. Two, through the road shows conducted in other countries. And three, through KTM.
KTM 2010 and 2012 were granted Rs 1 crore each. The CAG report had also stated that the Tourism Department had granted Rs 41.62 lakh to the KTM over and above the sanctioned amount. Mr George said that KTM had not received this amount.
“It is true that the department had agreed to grant us the amount but only after we were able to convince the department that KTM had been deprived of the amount earlier. But as a result of some dispute, the amount was not disbursed,” he said.
