Buoyed by the 18.57% growth achieved in domestic tourist arrivals to the State in the first quarter of 2018, Kerala Tourism has commenced the Phase I of the road shows and partnership meets for 2018-19 to market the destination by participating in the three-day Travel and Tourism Fair (TTF)-Kolkata in West Bengal.
The three-day TTF-Kolkata from July 6 is the first of the five domestic trade fairs God’s Own Country will showcase the destination and tourism products to increase the number of visitors.
Partnership meets
In addition, 10 partnership meets are also scheduled in various cities during the five-month period till November. The road show will commence in Bhubaneswar in Odisha on July 10.
The State is fine-tuning the list of the international trade fairs and road shows to be attended during 2018-19 for the promotion of the destination and the tourism products.
It will begin with the three-day Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Travel Mart at Langkawi, Malaysia, from September 12, a tourism official told The Hindu.
Apart from the TTF-Kolkata, Kerala Tourism will participate in the travel fair scheduled at Ahmedabad, Mumbai and the India International Travel Mart (IITM) Bengalaru and Hyderabad. Besides Bhubaneswar, the road shows are organised at Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Vijayawada, Lucknow, Indore, Nagpur, Pune and Mumbai.
Of these short-listed cities, the official said Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Pune and Mumbai were core markets for Kerala Tourism. Lucknow and Indore were the two cities the State had ventured into in the last two years to increase the number of visitors.
Accredited tour operators, approved and classified serviced villas, homestays, ayurveda centres, houseboat service providers with valid licence and hotels/resorts in the State will attend the one-day road shows.
By overcoming several hurdles, the State had received around 14.22 lakh domestic tourists in January, 12.26 lakh in February and 12.28 lakh in March — with a total 38.76 lakh visitors compared to the 32.70 lakh in the the same period in 2017.
The increase in tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2018 is due to the marketing initiatives in the small cities and the focus on Hindi belt by Kerala Tourism last year.