KUMAAR HOLIDAYS
No. 42, Chowdary Nagar Main Road,
Valasaravakkam, Chennai-87
Cell: 78109 86933 / 78108 96933 / 93810 61000
E-mail: kumaarholidays1@gmail.com
Website: www.kumaarholidays.com
The Kerala Tourism Department’s judgment of toughening itself on teamwork
between tour operators, property owners, travel agencies and search engines
like Google and connectivity solutions like Wi-Fi and mobile internet is
projected to come as a respite for the suffering houseboat sector here when
viewed against Kerala’s fame as one of the most preferred tourist destinations
on Google. Apart from this, a latest BBC World News survey claimed Kerala as a
popular tourist hotspot.
Zacharia
Appaneth, Deputy Tourism Director said that in 2013, about Rs 43 crore had been
kept side for the endorsement of tourism. The net acted as the major platform
for endorsements as the department had highly depended on Google. Zacharia added, “Before the commencement of
tourism season, we completed shooting new houseboat commercials and designed
new print and visual ads for the circulation through the internet”.
According to
Kerala Tourism spokesperson T.V. Prasanth, even with a little help from Google
Inc, as around 7.94 lakh international tourists visited Kerala in 2012 compared
to 7.33 lakh in 2011 with the state earning about Rs 21,125 crore from the
tourism sector in 2012.
He said, “A
huge increase in interest among the foreign tourists for Kerala was witnessed
due to the campaigns with the support of Google and connectivity solutions like
Wi-Fi and mobile internet. Using the popularity of digital revolution, the
state advertised itself with great efficiency on social networking sites like
Twitter and Facebook.”
In 2012, the
total income from both direct and indirect tourism in Kerala was estimated
about Rs 21,125 crore compared to about Rs 19,037 crore the previous year. Also
that, around 1.01 crore domestic tourists visited the state in 2012 compared to
around 93.88 lakh domestic tourists in 2011. The official also stated that
Foreign exchange earnings increased from about Rs 4,221.99 crore in 2011 to about
Rs 4,548 crore in 2012.
District
Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC) Secretary C. Pradeep revealed that this year, large
number of enquiries had been coming in from abroad. He said, “Through internet,
every year from Europe we have been receiving around 200-300 enquiries. It is the
evidence that our internet marketing has produced an impact.”
On the other
hand, the All Kerala Houseboat Owners Association (AKHOA) general secretary
N.Sreekumar blamed the government for its failure in enforcing appealing
promotional packages for foreign tourists who were interested to visit Kerala. Even
with the existence of many obstacles, foreign tourists still wanted to visit
Kerala. He also added that the chief source of income for houseboats income was
via internet.
Once Destination is never a Place
but a new way of seeing things
KUMAAR HOLIDAYS
No. 42, Chowdary Nagar Main Road,
Valasaravakkam, Chennai-87
Cell: 78109 86933 / 78108 96933 / 93810 61000
E-mail: kumaarholidays1@gmail.com
Website: www.kumaarholidays.com
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