Visakhapatnam: Kerala tourism sets ambitious goals to enhance footfalls

Visakhapatnam: The Department of Tourism of Kerala has set a target of increasing the domestic tourists by 10 per cent from each city across the country. In an exclusive interview with The Hans India, Kerala Tourism Department Deputy Director P Muraleedharan mentioned that the Tamil Nadu tops the charts when it comes to tourists visiting Kerala.

The neighbouring state is being followed by Karnataka and Maharashtra. However, the count in the number of tourists arriving at Kerala from Andhra Pradesh touches close to a lakh each year. With the God's Own Country emerging as one of the world's most-preferred tourist destination, the Deputy Director mentioned that the target is to double the count in near future.

Among other '2022 goals,' Kerala government aims at increasing the domestic footfalls by 50 per cent and international tourist arrivals by 100 per cent.

"In comparison to 2017, there is a 13 per cent rise in the tourists count in 2018. Even till September last, 1.31 crore domestic footfalls were recorded. The growth in the foreign tourists registered for the same period is 8.19 lakh. In 2018, Kerala government generated Rs 36,258 crore, an increase of 8.61 per cent compared to previous year," shares Muraleedharan.

The biggest USP of Kerala tourism includes Ayurveda rejuvenation therapies and backwaters amidst verdurous greenery. "In addition, Kerala is preferred by several corporate employees to hold meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) for apparent reasons," elaborates Muraleedharan.

Drawing similarities between tourist destinations in Kerala and Visakhapatnam, he stated that the port city is also the most-sought after tourist destination like several parts of Kerala. "Coastline is one of the common factors between these two destinations. As part of boosting tourist arrivals, we are also negotiating with travel agents across the country and partner with them in future to improve domestic tourists," he concludes.