Kerala gears up for Phase II of promotional campaign to woo foreign tourists

Kerala Tourism is gearing up for a three-month long international campaign in its bid to lure foreign tourists to God’s Own Country. The Phase II of the campaign would commence with the participation of Kerala Tourism in Vakantiebeurs, the tourism-leisure fair of The Netherlands, followed by FITUR, the international tourism trade fair of Spain. The German cities of Dusseldorf (January 23) and Hamburg (January 25) would be the venues for the first roadshows in Phase II. The roadshows in the emerging West Asian markets will be held between February 26-28, 2018, which includes Qatar (Doha- February 26), Oman (Muscat-February 27) and the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi-February 28). Later in April 2018, B2B meets will be organized in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

On January 24, the campaign will kick-start in New York City of the United States, followed by the New York Times Travel Show scheduled to be held from January 26 to January 28. Further road shows will be organized in Los Angeles (January 30) and San Francisco (February 1), which has been escalating foreign tourist arrivals to Kerala. The campaign would culminate with BIT, the international travel expo and road show at Milan in Italy (February 11 – 13, 2018).

The Tourism Department of Kerala had received overwhelming response to the Phase I campaign, at International Trade Fairs and B2B meets in 12 countries, which ended last month.

Kadakampally Surendran, Minister for Co-Operation, Tourism and Devaswom, Government of Kerala, stated: “With the promotional strategy, we aim to showcase diversified tourism products across high-potential markets in order to attract tourists to visit the state. Kerala Tourism has been centered on leisure tourism, but now we aim to re-brand Kerala as ‘The Land of Adventure’. The road shows and trade fairs shall highlight Kerala’s heritage and traditions to a wider audience.”

Besides, Kerala Tourism would participate in ITB Berlin (March 7-11, 2018) followed by a road show in France at Marseille (March 13, 2018). Kerala Tourism has listed out as many as 12 trade fairs and 24 road shows under this triumphant promotional campaign for the FY 2017-18 with an enhanced budget allocation of Rs. 11.5 crore.

Speaking about the plans, P. Bala Kiran, IAS, Director, Kerala Tourism and Managing Director of Kannur International Airport said, “We have been following an aggressive marketing and promotional strategy like never before. We chose these markets post analyzing the tourists’ footfall over the last five years. Through road shows and travel fairs, we aim to scale up the trade and tourism business of the state, while establishing new trade connections in the high-potential markets.”

Highlighting the growth of foreign tourist arrival,  Rani George, IAS, Secretary, Tourism & Culture, Government of Kerala stated, “Under the promotional strategy, the international markets have been categorized into five groups and the main group comprises the UK, France, Germany and the US. Interestingly, Kerala has witnessed 100% growth in tourist arrivals from markets including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia, Russia and Maldives, which form the Group ll.”