Association of Planters of Kerala Annual General Meeting at Casino Hotel, Cochin

At the Association of Planters of Kerala (APK) Annual General Meeting, at Casino Hotel, Willington Island, Kochi, mByom was invited to present aHOPE, our Platform Cooperative Ecosystem (PCE) and Virtual Pavilion. APK, an 80 year old organisation represents over 180,000 acres of plantation land in Kerala. The technical session at the AGM focused on Sustainable Plantation Tourism was inaugurated by Mr.  Jefrry Rebello, President of UPASI (United Planters’ Association of South India) and Mr. Rajeev the Honorable Minister of Industries, Plantations, Law and Coir, Kerala was the chief guest. The session speakers were Mr. Jose Dominic, founder Chairman of CGH Earth and pioneer of responsible tourism in Kerala, Mr. Vanchy, member tourism, Wayanad and Mr. Ajit Mathai.

Mr. Mathai led an insightful presentation on generating substantial revenue for members of APK by aggregation of possibly over 3000 scenic properties across estates in Kerala using aHOPE. Mr. Grahame Shepherd, expert on wine tourism from New Zealand and Mr. Nandakishor Rajan, Director of mByom’s NZ operations joined Mr. Mathai in presenting a New Zealand case study of aHOPE. The paradigm shift that aHOPE could bring about was extremely well received. We look forward to working together with APK to bring about this transformation in plantation tourism in Kerala.