The popular Kerala Travel Mart (KTM), the biennial international travel, tourism exhibition and buyer-sell meet, scheduled to be held in the virtual format from November 23 to 27 this year has been postponed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As you all are aware about the worldwide unprecedented situation due to the pandemic …the committee has decided to postpone KTM Virtual 2020 to the 1st quarter of next year. The dates will be intimated to you later,” Jose Pradeep, Secretary, Kerala Travel Mart Society, said in a statement.

Earlier the authorities had decided to hold the event, one of India’s largest Buyer-Seller Tourism Mart, in the virtual format for the first time this year due to the health crisis. The south Indian state of Kerala was hoping to revive its struggling tourism industry, which got crippled by the global health crisis, through the first edition of the virtual KTM.

Even as the fresh cases of novel coronavirus continued to decline in India, the Covi-19 cases continued to mount in the southern state. On November one, a total of 7025 people tested positive for the disease as the total deaths crosses 1500 in the state.

The last KTM edition, held soon after the devastating floods, received encouraging response despite the natural calamity in 2018 as the event helped the state’s recovery through the tourism sector.

Meanwhile, the fifth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, an international exhibition of contemporary art, has also been postponed to November 1, 2021, in view of the alarming situation.