Kerala: Looking beyond backwaters
In an exclusive interview, Suman Billa, Secretary-Tourism, Government of Kerala talks about the recent initiatives of the tourism board and how it is working aggressively towards positioning Kerala with a wider range of products in its portfolio.
According to Suman Billa, Secretary-Tourism, Government of Kerala, the state cannot survive only on the backwaters or the beaches and is now looking beyond these products. With a new portfolio of a wide array of products, Kerala Tourism is betting big on the Muziris Heritage Project which will spearhead this diversification.
Kerala will also focus more on attracting business from international meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) category
The Muziris Heritage Project by Kerala Tourism is all set to woo tourists as four more museums, the hop-on-hop off boat service and the Kodungallur Visitor Centre are ready for launch. “The Muziris project has already opened four museums. Four more museums – the Sahodaran Ayyappan Museum, Kesari Balakrishna Museum, Abdul Rahman Museum and the Kerala Isalmic History Museum are ready to open to the public. Apart from these, the Visitor Centre at Kodungallur is also about to be unveiled. The air conditioned hop-on-hop-off boat service with a capacity of 24 pax per trip will start from this Visitor Centre and will cover 25 kms and touch the four museums and the excavation site. The Kottapuram fort site is almost ready as well. Near Kodungallur, a convention centre with capacity to seat 1500 people will be opened soon,” Billa said on the sidelines of the eighth edition of the Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) 2014.
Outlining the need for drafting a roadmap for empow- ering the local community to ensure its social and economic fulfillment, Billa feels the state can be a viable destination for wedding as well as honeymoon tourism. “Spots such as Thekkady, Kumarakom, Kovalam, Wayanad and Bekal could be promoted for this purpose. Kerala will also focus more on attracting business from international meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) category,” he added.
Elaborating on the initiatives of the Kerala government to enhance the MICE offerings in the state, Billa pointed out, “The government’s initiative in this year’s budget in reducing luxury taxes on convention
` centres above 20,000 from 20 per cent to 10 per cent, is going to act as a catalyst for the private sector to enter the MICE business on a larger scale. This initiative is taken to strengthen the efforts of the Tourism Department for transforming Kerala into an attractive destination for national and international seminars and conventions. However, the concessional rates will be applicable only to the seminars and conventions approved by the tourism department.”