Kerala: Despite international accolades, an alarming drop in inflow of foreign tourists

Domestic tourism is however booming, with first the quarter of 2022 witnessing an impressive 72 percent jump in arrivals.

ByK A Shaji

Published Jul 23, 2022 | 4:47 PMUpdatedJul 28, 2022 | 4:28 PM

Kerala: Despite international accolades, an alarming drop in inflow of foreign tourists

TIME Magazine recently shortlisted Kerala as one of the 50 extraordinary destinations across the globe to explore this year, but that has little impact on the number of foreigners visiting the state. The numbers are abysmally low.

In the last fiscal, there was a perilous 70 percent drop in the number of visiting foreigners, and the situation continues to remain the same now, even though most global travel restrictions related to Covid-19 no longer exist.

To counter the massive slump in the inflow of foreign tourists — which has affected livelihoods across the state — the government has plans for massive worldwide campaigns to put Kerala back on the map. The TIME report and other recent recognitions will be highlighted as part this outreach.

While this is a welcome effort, experts feel there is an urgent need to give the state’s tourism destinations a make-over.

Domestic tourism saves the day

As far as domestic tourists are concerned, Kerala is still a favourite destination. Many tourist locations are bursting with visitors during weekends.

According to numbers available with the Tourism Department, a whopping 3.8 million domestic tourists visited Kerala in the first quarter of 2022, which marks an impressive growth of 72.48 percent over the 2.2 million footfalls in the same period of previous year.

Most domestic tourists have preferred locations like Thiruvananthapuram, Idukki, Thrissur, Kumarakom-Alappuzha, and Wayanad.

“However, the state finds foreign tourists a major priority because of their purchasing power,” said KV Ravisankar, a known tourism expert in the state.

According to him, Kerala has to address the infrastructure deficiencies clearly before welcoming guests from outside. “The monsoon has damaged almost all roads in cities and villages. This grey area has to be addressed. Besides, guides and facilitators need to be motivated,” he said.

Nehru Trophy beckons

The state government hopes that foreign tourists would begin arriving in the latter half of August, ahead of the famous Nehru Trophy Boat Race that is scheduled for September 4 in the Alappuzha backwaters.

“We hope foreigners will arrive from August-end as the boat race will herald the beginning of post-pandemic tourism. As we have effectively handled Covid-19 cases, we hope foreign tourists will prefer Kerala and flock to our tourism spots,” Tourism Minister PA Muhammed Riyas said when contacted by South First.

The newly introduced “caravan tourism” is now being promoted globally. Branded as “Keravan Kerala: Go Caravanning”, it will see private sector players operating “specially-built caravans for travel, leisure and stay”.

Local communities will also have a stake in the game as they are being encouraged to set up “eco-friendly Caravan Parks” for travellers to plug into power and sewage connections.

According to the minister, Kerala has developed a unique tourism concept to empower local communities and make them the direct beneficiaries of the tourism interventions.

The state’s cooperative sector would be prompted to invest more in tourism infrastructure, said Riyas.

“As tourism is a high-income generator in Kerala, it has a greater role to play in creating new job opportunities, and promoting livelihood enterprises. New policy formulations are required,” said Gopinath Parayil, head of responsible tourism initiative Blue Yonder.

Hello ‘Heli-tourism’

The minister said the potential of heli-tourism was also being explored so that tourists landing at the state’s airports could reach important tourist destinations without delay. Since road travel is time-consuming, groups of 8 to 12 tourists could be ferried in helicopters.

The government has also decided to spend more than ₹1,000 crore on the Canal City project to clean up Connolly Canal in Kozhikode city, its development, and to promote tourism there. He said that the Tourism Department was also looking into how adventure sports could be promoted by tapping into the uniqueness of local rivers.