Kerala beckons domestic travellers
The State Government has announced new initiatives for attracting tourists, with special emphasis on the domestic sector at its 5th Partnership Meet for the year 2014, held in New Delhi on February 12. spoke to S Harikishore, Director, Kerala Tourism, to
The B2B Partnership Meet was divided into two episodes—one was in September-October and another one was in JanuaryFebruary. In SeptemberOctober 2013, Kerala Tourism organised the meets at 14 different cities, followed by the meets in Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Guwahati, Kolkata and Hyderabad in January-
We are heavily promoting MICE, wedding, seaplane, heritage and responsible tourism
February 2014. The events were attended by a significant number of hoteliers, tour operators and allied organisations.
According to Harikishore, the Delhi meet was attended by 250 buyers consisting of travel agents, tour operators and allied service providers to interact with 50 tourism-related companies from Kerala. At this meet, Kerala Tourism unveiled two major new initiatives— ‘Seaplane Project’ and ‘Project Muziris’. The seaplane project is aimed towards improving last-mile connectivity by air to its destinations across state. The plan is to provide service initially in the priority circuit, consisting of the three airports of Thiruvananthapuram, Cochin and Calicut and prime destinations like Astamudi, Punnamada, Kumarakom, Bolgatty and Bekal.
The Muziris project is directed to reinstate the historical and cultural significance of the legendary port of Muziris. Related to this project, 11 new museums will be inaugurated by February 2014 and another 14 will be ready by 2015.
Kerala Tourism has also announced some other signifi- cant projects, which include ‘Spice Route Revival Project’ and soft adventure holidays programme called ‘Natventure’. The state government is promoting the two millennia-old Spice Route that links the south-western coast of India to Europe. The objective behind Natventure is to use key tourism products like wildlife, hill stations, beaches, backwaters and soft adventure.
Kerala Tourism is now focussing more on Tier-II cities to strengthen domestic tourism.
Kerala Tourism is also promoting responsible tourism and exploring northern part of the state, which is hitherto untapped. And, to beef up the new initiatives of Kerala Tourism the state government
` has allotted 207 crore for the FY 2014-15. The government has declared Sales Tax relaxation during June to August monsoon session to certain areas.