Kerala Tourism hopes to convert lean season to dream season

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:

Kerala Tourism

is all set to leverage on the perceptible change in

foreign tourist arrivals

over the last few years that showed emergence of Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia, Oman and UAE as its top source markets, and turn the coming 'lean season' into a 'dream season'.

The earlier campaigns targeting the Middle East have started showing results with Saudi Arabia jumping to the third place among the top markets, while Oman and UAE are in the sixth and 10th positions respectively. In fact, despite a decline of tourist arrivals from Kerala's traditional markets including UK, France and Germany, arrivals from these Middle East countries have shown considerable growth, as per the 2016 statistics, which awaits an official release.

"Though the UK still tops with 1.55 lakh tourists visiting Kerala, we have not seen much growth in arrivals from Europe. The USA, meanwhile, has jumped to the second place overtaking the traditional markets. But what is most interesting is the emergence of Middle East or

West Asia

in a big way, which were nowhere in the picture five years back," said state tourism director P Bala Kiran.

As these Middle East countries have also contributed greatly for the surge in tourist arrivals during the lean season (May-August), the industry is now counting on them for a better season, and the department is finalizing on creative marketing campaigns through electronic, print and online media. Above all, the travellers from these countries are not just weekend visitors, but stay for a much longer period.

"In our campaigns, we will be juxtaposing their desert climate with our immense greenery and waterfalls, and will be depending mainly on business to consumer (B2C) marketing methods," the tourism secretary said. Besides, a massive 'dream season' campaign is being chalked out to attract domestic tourists from across the country mainly targeting families, he added.

Though the state's tourism industry made its presence at the recently held Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai, the only major market in the region, plan is to identify smaller ones and to spread its campaign apart from conducting more road shows for B2B (business to business) interactions. "We also need to finalize on the road shows after taking feedback from the industry. The focus will be on emerging markets," Bala Kiran said.

The strategic shift to emerging markets, according to him, is not based on whims and fancies but on statistics and data crunching. Though the state will still stick to the traditional markets, a bigger campaign will be launched in emerging markets including Malaysia, Singapore, Oman, Saudi and UAE, taking advantage of direct flight connectivity and less travel time. After inking an agreement with Silk Air targeting South-East Asia, the department is now eyeing on a similar tie-up with Etihad Airways to gain a good foothold in West Asia.