Kerala: Murder, Nipah scared away foreigners

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The rape and murder of the Latvian woman near Kovalam in March this year combined with Nipah virus outbreak in May, has cost dearly for state tourism, which suffered negative growth in foreign footfall for the first time in several years.

Despite securing a flying start in 2018 with 12.13 % growth in foreign tourist arrival in the first quarter when compared to previous year, the figures for the second quarter has revealed a variation of -4.6 % in foreign tourist inflow when compared to April-June period in 2017.



It was late in April that the decomposed body of the foreigner, who had gone missing, was found near Kovalam. The 33-year-old had come for an ayurveda treatment for depression and had got lured away by two persons with criminal backgrounds, whom the police arrested later and charge-sheeted. The incident had caught international attention and had raised serious concerns on safety of tourists, especially women, in Kerala.

Now, as the figures reveal, 3.46% growth in arrival of foreign travellers in April (compared to April 2017) dipped to -7.43% in May. Thiruvananthapuram district, which usually registers maximum foreign tourist arrival after Ernakulam, alone registered -2.7% fall in May, while that in Ernakulam too went down by -0.12%.

Nipah virus outbreak in north Kerala too took a heavy toll on foreigners' arrival in June, the statistics have revealed, and the growth stood at -16.56%. As the major points of arrival Thiruvananthapuram suffered -37.92% dip while Ernakulam registered -5.8% degrowth in foreign tourist arrival.

The growth in June stood at -10.79% in Kozhikode and -16.7% in Malappuram districts, where Nipah virus scare had spread during May-June. The state health department had issued a travel advisory asking travellers to be extra cautious while travelling to these northern districts, and even foreign countries had advised their citizens to postpone travels to Kerala.

"Both these factors have affected the good trend we had in the beginning of the year. There had been heavy cancellations of bookings, especially in the state capital, due to negative publicity during May and June. Now, the negative growth will be huge for the third quarter as well due to the deluge," said a tourism official.

Though arrival of domestic tourists during the second quarter could register an overall 15.93% growth, the northern districts including Wayanad (-21.95%), Kozhikode (-12.23%), Malappuram (-6.99%) and Kannur (-3.79%), which were under Nipah virus scare, suffered a significant drop in arrivals in June.

The overall domestic tourist arrival growth which stood at 21.21% in April and 19.13% in May, suffered a downtrend in June with 5.54% growth. The overall growth in arrival in domestic tourism sector in the first quarter was 18.57%.