Kochi, Feb 21 (IANS): Various new and innovative themes would be showcased at the eighth edition of the Kerala Tourism's flagship event "Kerala Tourism Mart" to be held here in September this year.

The state tourism department, in partnership with the Kerala Travel Mart Society, hosts this mega event, which brings together the entrepreneurs behind the state's tourism products and services on a single platform.

Kerala's Tourism Minister A.P. Anil Kumar told IANS that the event would be held at Kochi's Samudrika Convention Centre, Cochin Port Trust and Willingdon Island Sep 18-20.

"This time we are showcasing new themes like promoting our state as a wedding destination. Of late, there are several couples from abroad who get married in our state and we felt that we should take this up as our selling point," Kumar said.

"As always, we expect that this time too, it would be a sellout event as we expect the number of buyers and sellers to be at the maximum. This event has seen an increased participation at every edition," he added.

KTM 2014 will reach out to buyers from new markets like Australia, Austria, Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Sweden and the US.