Tourism - MAHAMAG Magazine beyond boundaries

Tourism Road shows outside India

The state's tourism agenda promotes ecologically sustained tourism, which focuses on the local culture, wilderness adventures, volunteering and personal growth of the local population. Efforts are taken to minimize the adverse effects of traditional tourism on the natural environment, and enhance the cultural integrity of local people.

Kerala earned total revenue of Rs 24885.44crore from tourism for 2014, an increase of 12.11 per cent year-on-year. Foreign tourist arrival in 2014 was 9,233,366 up 7.6 per cent, and domestic tourist arrival was up by 7.71 per cent. The total foreign exchange earnings for the year of 2014 were Rs 6,398.93crore, which was an increase of 15.07 per cent over the previous year.

The state is also considered to be one of the safest regions of India. Incidents of local people cheating tourists are almost non-existent. Kerala has high standards of living compared to its neighbors and other Indian states and has indices such as education and healthcare that are on par with developed countries. Therefore, tourists can relax without

being followed around by taxi drivers, touts or guides, though there are some beggars who have migrated from poorer states. Abundant rainfall means that you can find lush greenery that remains pretty much throughout the year. A holiday here is an opportunity for rejuvenation.

The State will also start training guides in Japanese and Dutch languages. To attract tourists from China and Japan, the Tourist Department will start road shows in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

Kerala Tourism and St Petersburg’s tourism department will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote tourist inflow from this second-largest Russian city to Kerala.

Kerala Tourism had a busy schedule in Russia, with a road show conducted in the port city of St Petersburg on September 21 that followed the OTDYKH Leisure 2015, a four-day International Trade Fair for travel and tourism held in Moscow. “In 2014, the tourist arrivals from Russia were

35,010. With this road show, we are expecting an increase in the arrivals of Russian tourists,” Rao said. In a bid to attract European tourists, Kerala organized a road show in Poland highlighting the state's pristine beaches and importance of ayurveda in the field of medicine.

Kerala Tourism Department organized the show in Warsaw, drawing a large number of visitors and representatives from the domestic outbound tourism sector.

Kerala Tourism made its foray into the vast outbound tourism market of Japan, holding a first-time road show in Tokyo. As many as 55 leading trade participants from the Japanese travel and tourism industry participated in the road show.

Tourist arrivals from Japan have witnessed a 25 per cent growth in the last five years. The number of Japanese tourists to Kerala last year was 8,785.

"As the world's third largest economy, Japan is a very important market for us," Tourism official said.