Thaindian News

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 22 (IANS) With Kerala’s tourist season round the corner, the state’s tourism department, in association with industry stakeholders, has kicked off an international road show in Brussels to promote its tourism potential, officials said here.
Tourism Secretary V. Venu, who is leading the Brussels show that started Monday, will travel to Paris next to participate in a trade mart and to Italy from there, the tourism department said.

The state will also organise road shows in Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne next month and will have a stall in the World Travel Market (WTM) show, to be held in London Nov 9-12.

“This is the first time Kerala is having a separate stall outside the India Pavilion. This will provide more visibility to Kerala Tourism and of course more space for those who want to display their products in the London show,” said E.M. Najeeb, a tour operator in the state.

Najeeb is travelling to London in November to participate in the WTM event.

Kerala Tourism Development Corp chairman Cherian Phillip is now in Russia, while Tourism Director M. Sivsankar will soon travel to China to receive a tourism award for the state.

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) award will be delivered at the PATA Travel Mart-2009, to be held in Hangzhou Sep 25, said Najeeb.

Kerala’s tourism season begins in November, peaks in December-January and ends by March.

Despite the global recession, there was a 14.84 percent growth in Kerala’s tourism revenue in 2008, while total number of tourists arrived in the state grew by 14.41 percent.

The number of domestic tourists visiting the state went up from 62.72 lakh in 2006 to 75.91 lakh in 2008, according to the tourism department.

Similarly, the number of foreign tourists increased from 4.29 lakh in 2006 to 5.99 lakh in 2008.

Kerala’s overall revenue from tourism soared from Rs.9,126 crore in 2006 Rs.13,130 crore in 2008, while its foreign exchange earnings grew from Rs.1,988 crore in 2006 to Rs.3,067 crore last year.