Kerala tourism industry on revival path after last month’s deluge
‘We bounced back defeating all the never-seen-before challenges.’
KOCHI: The tourism industry in the southern Indian state of Kerala has shown its strong character post the devastating loods and the way it made the revival is astounding, says KJ Alphons, the federal tourism minister.
“I emphasise Kerala Tourism’s ability to recoup after a severe natural calamity as an epitome wherever I go,” he said at the Kerala Travel Mart 2018 (KTM) here on Friday.
“We bounced back defeating all the never-seen-before challenges. It gives the positive sign that tourism has regained its vigour post the lood.”
Chief minister pin arayi vi jay an opened the tenth edition of the biennial buyerseller meet in this port city on Thursday amidst a slump in tourist arrivals.
But the KTM witnessed a massive presence of delegates, especially from the Gulf and Europe, evincing interest in the northern Kerala where a new airport is ready to open.
Malabar, comprising Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Malappuram and Palakkad is this edition’s focus theme.
It features 1,635 buyers, one-third of them from 66 foreign countries, whom the organisers describe as top functionaries of irms in the tourism industry within and outside the country. The show has 325 sellers in 400 stalls. They include hotels and resorts, homestays, houseboats, Ayurveda centres and cultural organisations.
Kerala’s tourism industry generates an annual turnover of Rs 340 billion and employs an estimated 2.5 million people.
There are 545 foreign buyers coming from 65 countries, including the USA (42), the UK (40), the UAE (37), Germany (36), Australia (32), Russia (31) and Malaysia (26).
Among other GCC countries, Qatar is represented by three buyers, Saudi Arabia 11, Kuwait 8, Oman 5 and Bahrain 1. As for the domestic buyers, their number stands at 1,090.
The industry hopes the event to revive the tourist interest as people are slowly picking up the pieces since the deluge ravaged life and infrastructure.
The tourism industry contributes ten per cent of the state’s economy, and the loods had led to massive cancellations by visitors, hitting its economy hard.
Kerala aims to generate half a million new jobs in tourism in the next three years, even as the industry is bracing up to emerge out of a business loss of Rs 5 billion in loods. The industry feels the state is back on track on the tourist map with all its destinations reopened now.