Kerala Travel Mart 2026: Kerala Looks Beyond Its Famous Tourist Routes

Kerala Travel Mart 2026: Kerala Looks Beyond Its Famous Tourist Routes

Kerala already has a name that most travellers interested in India will recognise. The backwaters of Alappuzha, the hills around Munnar, Ayurveda, Kochi, the beaches and the houseboats have been part of Kerala’s international tourism image for years. But at Kerala Travel Mart 2026, the message coming from the tourism industry was increasingly about what comes next.

I was in Kochi for the opening of the 13th edition of Kerala Travel Mart on September 24, at the Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty. The event continued until September 27 and brought together tourism businesses, buyers and media from India and abroad.

This year’s edition recorded 58,000 B2B meetings, with 383 seller stalls and 25 government institution stalls. The official programme also included discussions about artificial intelligence, changing traveller expectations and new tourism products.

But behind all those numbers, one idea kept coming back: Kerala wants travellers to discover more of Kerala.

Kerala Travel Mart: from 160 exhibitors to a major international event

The story of Kerala Travel Mart began in Kochi in 2000. The first edition was much smaller, with around 160 exhibitors and more than 350 buyers. KTM eventually became a biennial event and has continued through editions in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022, 2024 and now 2026.

The Kerala Travel Mart Society describes KTM as a tourism trade event focused exclusively on Kerala and says the organisation was established in 2000. Twenty-six years after the first edition, the scale is very different. KTM 2026 brought together more than 3,000 delegates, including around 1,500 buyers. There were 383 exhibitors and 25 government institution stalls, while the three business days generated 58,000 buyer-seller meetings.

The numbers are impressive, but what interested me more was the direction behind them.

A new tourism map for Kerala

Kerala does not need to reinvent itself. It already has several internationally recognised destinations and tourism products. The question is how to spread international tourism beyond the places that already receive most of the visitors. This was one of the important subjects discussed during KTM 2026. The state is looking increasingly towards regions that are less familiar to international travellers, particularly northern Kerala and the Malabar region. And this is where things get interesting.

Northern Kerala: the part many international visitors still miss

When people outside India think about Kerala, the mental picture is usually quite predictable. Backwaters. Houseboats. Ayurveda. Munnar. Beaches. Palm trees.

Northern Kerala offers something different. The Malabar region combines the Arabian Sea with the Western Ghats, beaches with mountains, plantations with historic towns, and food with a strong cultural identity. Kannur and Kasaragod bring forts, beaches and local traditions. Theyyam is one of the best-known cultural expressions of the region, while places such as Thalassery, Kannur and Kozhikode also carry the history of centuries of maritime trade and contact with the Arab world and European powers.

There is also a strong food story here. And that may become increasingly important as travellers look for experiences rather than simply collecting famous attractions. Northern Kerala can offer a combination of culture, nature, food, history and local communities without trying to reproduce the tourism model already established in the southern part of the state. That seems to be precisely the point.

The numbers explain the problem

The need to diversify is easier to understand when you look at the distribution of international visitors. In 2025, Ernakulam district, home to Kochi, recorded more than 276,000 international tourist visits. Idukki had more than 159,000, while Thiruvananthapuram recorded more than 166,000. By comparison, Kannur recorded just over 4,000 international visits and Kasaragod around 4,400.

There is clearly a large difference between the established tourism centres and some of the northern districts. At KTM, the idea of an “unseen Kerala” was repeatedly discussed as a way of bringing more attention to destinations outside the traditional tourist circuit. One of the post-mart programmes reflects that approach. A route running from Kochi towards Kasaragod, Nileshwaram, Kannur and Kozhikode was planned for tourism professionals, including visits to backwaters, villages, craft communities and historic sites.

For me, this is one of the more interesting things happening in Kerala right now. Not because the famous Kerala has disappeared. Quite the opposite. The state is trying to add another layer to the destination.

Kerala still wants to sell its classics

There is no attempt to abandon the destinations that already work.

Munnar, Kochi, Alappuzha, Kumarakom, Kovalam, Varkala and Thekkady remain important parts of Kerala’s international tourism offer. The 2025 figures show just how important they are. Kochi City alone recorded more than 198,000 international tourist visits, followed by destinations such as Thekkady, Thiruvananthapuram, Munnar, Kumarakom, Kovalam and Alappuzha. The strategy discussed at KTM is therefore less about replacing the old Kerala and more about adding new destinations and experiences to it.

The state has also announced plans to strengthen tourism infrastructure across 100 destinations. Another idea presented by Kerala Tourism is “Be a Malayali for a Day”, an experiential tourism concept designed to let visitors experience elements of local life and cuisine rather than simply visit attractions. Kerala Tourism has been promoting this broader shift towards experiential tourism during 2026.

It is a simple change in perspective: Don’t just visit Kerala. Spend some time living it.

From sightseeing to experiences

KTM 2026 was not only about traditional leisure tourism. MICE, medical tourism, weddings, golf, cruises, ecotourism and local experiences were all part of the wider conversation. AI was another subject on the programme, alongside changing customer expectations. The official KTM schedule included dedicated discussions on both subjects. There is also a practical issue behind the talk about new experiences. Travellers increasingly expect to be able to discover and book activities online, sometimes quite close to the date of their trip.

A destination can have an extraordinary experience in a remote village, a great food tradition or an interesting cultural event, but that experience becomes difficult to sell internationally if visitors cannot find it or book it. For Kerala’s less-developed tourist regions, digital visibility may therefore become almost as important as the attraction itself.

What the new Kerala government wants from tourism

KTM 2026 also took place during a period of political change in the state. V. D. Satheesan, who is currently Chief Minister of Kerala, officially inaugurated the event on September 24. This is a state-level position within India’s federal system, rather than the position of Prime Minister of India.

The tourism direction presented at KTM included expanding ecotourism, forest tourism, jungle lodges, trekking and cruise tourism, alongside the development of new tourism infrastructure. Among the proposals discussed were cruise terminals in Kochi and Kozhikode, with longer-term plans connected to Kerala’s waterways. The government’s broader tourism approach is therefore not limited to bringing more visitors to the destinations that are already popular. It is also about creating reasons for visitors to stay longer and travel further.

Kerala is already a strong destination. The challenge is what comes next.

This is probably what I took away from KTM 2026. Kerala does not have a problem of being unknown. It has almost the opposite problem. Some parts of the state are already very well known, while others remain largely invisible to international travellers. The next stage is about connecting those two realities.

The north has the ingredients: the Arabian Sea, beaches, the Western Ghats, plantations, food, historic towns, forts and living cultural traditions. What it needs is greater international visibility, suitable infrastructure and tourism products that can be easily understood and booked by visitors from abroad. And that is perhaps the most interesting part of Kerala’s tourism story right now.

The Kerala that international travellers already know is not going away. There is simply another Kerala waiting to be discovered.

Kerala Travel Mart 2026 ended in Kochi on September 27. The real test of the ideas presented during the event will come later, when we see whether international visitors actually begin travelling beyond Kerala’s established tourism centres.