THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Efforts made by Kerala Tourism to attract American tourists have proved to be a hit with the official team from the state tourism department successfully completing B2B meets in the United States.
Led by Kerala Tourism Director P Balakiran, the delegation successfully organised three road shows so as to lure tourists from the United States, to Kerala.
As many as three shows were undertaken in the three different cities of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Sandeep Chakaborty, Consul General, presided over the New York road show, while sandya Haridas, Assistant Director, India Tourism, attended the road shows at San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Kerala Tourism also participated in the New York Times Travel Show, where the huge tourism potential that Kerala offers to travelers from around the world, including the US, was discussed. The destination awareness programs and B2B meetings were overwhelming successes.
As many as 92,951 travellers from the US had arrived in Kerala during 2017. This showed an increase of 5.83 percent compared to last year. Kerala had played host to around 87,834 tourists from the United States in 2016.
A host of players from the tourism trade in Kerala also were part of the B2B meets organized by Kerala Tourism in the United States. They included C.G.H Earth, Green Routes Hospitality, Kumarakom Lake Resort, Chalukya Grace Tours, Intersight Tours and Travels, Marvel Tours, Pioneer Personalized Holidays, Spiceland Holidays, Tamarind Global, and The Blue Yonder.
The Kerala Tourism events in the US attracted a huge number of buyers too, with San Francisco accounting for 52 buyers, while Los Angeles saw 62 buyers and New York recording 26. Air India also partnered with Kerala Tourism in New York and San Francisco.‘Go Kerala’, a contest promoting Kerala Tourism served as a major crowd puller at the road shows. Two winners of the contest were presented with free holiday in God’s Own Country. The prizes included two Air India-sponsored flight tickets. Kerala Tourism will be looking to add to the numbers in the coming years.
