Kochi:
The fifth edition of the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF) aimed at turning Kerala into a hub for international shopping experience, commenced here on Thursday.
Inaugurating the festival, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the festival was designed to give a real shopping experience. A global village is being planned in Kochi as part of the festival, he said.
The shopping festival has also formulated 'darshan tourism', which would help tourists, especially foreigners, to visit the places that they love to go, Chandy said. Excise Minister K Babu launched the GKSF-KTDC package.
Tourism Minister A P Anil Kumar, Kochi mayor Tony Chammany, MLAs Hibi Eden, Dominic Presentation, Benny Behanan, Anwar Sadat, District Collector Sheikh Pareeth, GKSF director Rathan Kelkar and actors Mammootty and Jayaram were present.
This year, night shopping has been included. As part of the festival, that lasts for 46 days, 101 kg of gold will be given as prizes. Mega prize will be one kg gold for one person and second prize will be half a kg gold each for three persons. Apart from these, there would also be weekly prizes.
GKSF would also provide 100 per cent VAT refund for consumers from outside the State who shop using credit cards.
A turnover of around Rs 2,500 crore is expected in the festival. Last year, the turnover was around Rs 2,200 crore. It is expected that over 4,000 traders would participate in the shopping festival.