Kerala reinvents self as all-season hub for long stays, customised vacations

With domestic and international flights resuming to their pre-pandemic level, Kerala is all set to receive tourists from across the country and abroad, offering a bouquet of new experiences and products including caravans, long stays and customised vacations.

Tourism activities are back in full swing in timetested locales of the state like beaches, hill stations, backwaters and houseboats as well as hosting guests all through the year, and Kerala promises a variety of choices, Kerala Tourism Infrastructure Ltd, Govt of Kerala, Managing Director Dr Manoj Kumar, told the media here on the sidelines of a partnership meet.

In a major shift from the destination-specific approach, the whole of Kerala is reinventing itself as the ideal place for extended holidays with multiple experiences such as homestays, drive holidays, ‘Change of air’ based wellness vacations and adventure tourism activities, he said.

The travel and tourism industry has evinced keen interest in the new products of Kerala Tourism and a busy year is ahead for the state with a steep increase expected in footfalls.

For Kerala, 2022 will see a series of absorbing events and festivities like the Kerala Travel Mart in May, Champions’ Boat League (CBL) in AugustNovember and Kochi Muziris Biennale in DecemberMarch, besides cultural and literary fests and adventure tourism activities, Manoj Kumar said.

Kerala has a variety of experiences for visitors like houseboats, caravan stays, jungle lodges, plantation visits, homestays and city life, Ayurveda-based wellness solutions, countryside walks and adventure activities including trekking to verdant hills.

Keravan Kerala, the state’s caravan tourism initiative, has elicited tremendous response from the industry within a short span of time, emerging as a major product after Kerala tourism recorded an exponential rise powered by the houseboat cruise some three decades ago.

A major initiative has also been launched to open up the whole of the state for tourists in a sustainable manner without disturbing the ecology and cultural milieu of its various destinations. This project of exploring the unexplored destinations has been integrated with Kerala’s world-acclaimed community-centric and heritagepreserving Responsible Tourism movement.

To promote the state as a safe and glamorous honeymoon destination, Kerala tourism has launched micro video songs to entice honeymooners from India and abroad. A series of travel trade networking activities, including participation in trade fairs and organisation of business-to-business partnership meets and roadshows have been planned to introduce the new products to a wider audience.

The first two partnership meets held in New Delhi and Ahmedabad earlier this month, and a third one held at Hyderabad last week had a highly encouraging response from the industry.

Major inter national tourism events where Kerala plans to showcase its strength in the next three months include the 28th International Mediterranean Tourism Market (IMTM) at Tel Aviv (Israel) and at BIT Milan (Italy). Also, B2B meets will be held in Madrid and Milan.