With the stage set for the fifth edition of the Kochi Muziris Biennale (KMB) from December 12 to April 10 next, art enthusiasts and tourists are expected to yet again converge at its venues in and around Fort Kochi, bringing cheer to stakeholders in the art, tourism, and allied sectors that have been reeling under the impact of the pandemic.
This will in turn benefit a whole lot of others, including operators of home stays, restaurants, hotels, wayside shops, and auto/taxi drivers.
“The impending biennale will be a great platform to relaunch international tourism in Kerala, after a two-year lull. This will be crucial to ensure sound footfall of foreign tourists in 2023, since travel curbs and the war in Ukraine could affect the arrival of guests from abroad for a few more months,” says V. Venu, Additional Chief Secretary (Home), who earlier served as Additional Chief Secretary in charge of Tourism, and was one of the initial advocates of the art event whose first edition was held here in 2012.
“No doubt that tourism and other stakeholders in Fort Kochi and central Kerala will benefit from the event that is held every two years. Care must be taken to ensure the same level of quality and attention to detail that was seen in the past events this year too,” he says.
A whole lot of people, including operators of wayside shops and even shops selling curios and antiques, which abound in Mattancherry, will benefit from the event, says Bony Thomas, one of the founders of the KMB and the treasurer of the Kochi Biennale Foundation.
“The past four events saw art enthusiasts and others from different parts of the globe throng the venues. They arrived in a variety of commuting modes, from ferries that linked Fort Kochi with the mainland, and even in private jets, whose numbers peaked at the Cochin International Airport when the event was on.”
Apart from the vast collateral economic benefits, the art event will go a long way in furthering travel within Kerala – from visiting school and college students, especially students pursuing the arts stream to families which check out the exhibits.
A whopping two lakh people visited the premier event held in 2012, although it was more of an experiment. The footfall increased manifold during the subsequent years, he says.
Homestays, over 200 in Fort Kochi alone, will benefit the most from the KMB. “Homestay operators were amongst the worst hit by the pandemic. They are banking on the upcoming tourist season and the biennale to compensate for this, especially since artists will drop in well ahead of the four-month event,” says M.P. Sivadattan, director of the Kerala Homestay and Tourism Society.
Executive committee member and immediate past president of the Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) Society Abraham George spoke of how the art event will spearhead the revival of Kerala’s tourism fortunes that nosedived during the pandemic. It attains all the more significance in the post-pandemic period, he says.
