Thiruvananthpuram:
One of the most sought after tourist destinations in the country, Kerala is gearing up to welcome new set of tourists for the upcoming season. In 2009, the state observed a lull in the number of foreign tourists and as a precautionary measure this time, the focus is on domestic tourism.
In a marked shift in strategy, Kerala tourism this year seems to have come over its obsession towards foreigner-centric advertisement and moved on to campaigns attracting the domestic tourists.
"The earlier divide between international marketing and domestic marketing would have been 70% and 30% respectively. Today, our marketing budgets would be roughly 50:50. This is significant as we believe we have to expand our footprint within the country," said Dr V Venu the Tourism Secretary of government of Kerala.
In 2009, there was a dip of eight-and-a-half percent in the number of foreign tourists mainly due to the economic slowdown. However, nearly eight per cent growth in domestic tourist arrivals saved the industry from major losses.
"For every hotelier, today, the Indian rupee is perhaps more important than the dollar because of the consistency of traffic from domestic markets," added Dr Venu
So will the shift in strategy help give a facelift to the existing tourism industry.
The tour operators, however, say many issues need to be addressed to take on increasing competition from destinations like Sri Lanka and Maldives.
"Infrastructure-wise, we have to improve a lot. Also we have to change our tax structure because Kerala has always been known as a very expensive tourist destination compared to others," said E M Najeeb the President of Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry
While, the focus shift towards domestic tourism may serve the purpose in the post recession tourism market, ignoring the foreign tourist completely is not a long term solution. The need of the hour now is to reinvent and discover a completely new tourism chart so that interest in the God's own country rejuvenates.
In a marked shift in strategy, Kerala tourism this year seems to have come over its obsession towards foreigner-centric advertisement and moved on to campaigns attracting the domestic tourists.
"The earlier divide between international marketing and domestic marketing would have been 70% and 30% respectively. Today, our marketing budgets would be roughly 50:50. This is significant as we believe we have to expand our footprint within the country," said Dr V Venu the Tourism Secretary of government of Kerala.
In 2009, there was a dip of eight-and-a-half percent in the number of foreign tourists mainly due to the economic slowdown. However, nearly eight per cent growth in domestic tourist arrivals saved the industry from major losses.
"For every hotelier, today, the Indian rupee is perhaps more important than the dollar because of the consistency of traffic from domestic markets," added Dr Venu
So will the shift in strategy help give a facelift to the existing tourism industry.
The tour operators, however, say many issues need to be addressed to take on increasing competition from destinations like Sri Lanka and Maldives.
"Infrastructure-wise, we have to improve a lot. Also we have to change our tax structure because Kerala has always been known as a very expensive tourist destination compared to others," said E M Najeeb the President of Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry
While, the focus shift towards domestic tourism may serve the purpose in the post recession tourism market, ignoring the foreign tourist completely is not a long term solution. The need of the hour now is to reinvent and discover a completely new tourism chart so that interest in the God's own country rejuvenates.
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