Fifth Edition of Kerala Blog Express to be Flagged Off On March 18

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
The fifth edition of Kerala Blog Express will be flagged off from the Kerala capital on March 18. The annual blogger outreach campaign of Kerala Tourism will have the participation of 30 bloggers from 28 countries across the globe this year. Bloggers from countries such as France, the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Venezuela and Peru will be among the participants.
The chosen bloggers will take part in a two-week- long journey across the state, which will be flagged off from the Mascot Hotel by Minister for Tourism, Cooperation and Devaswoms  Kadakampally Surendran. After being flagged off from Thiruvananthapuram, on March 18, the bloggers will travel across the hills, beaches, backwaters, villages and various city life experiences in Kerala, and end the trip in Kochi on April 1.
Some of the places to be covered include Alappuzha, Kumarakom, Thrissur, Munnar, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod. The chosen travellers would upload photos, videos and articles about the beauty and charm of Kerala and share them with followers all over the world. The entire journey from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod will be documented by the bloggers. Photos, videos, and articles will be shared by the bloggers across their followers to help Kerala Tourism reach out to the aspiring travellers from around the world.
The Kerala Blog Express, which has emerged into a successful campaign for Kerala Tourism, will have its focus on various aspects, including social media campaigns, familiarization trip, and bloggers’ meet.
According to Kadakampally Surendran, “Holding aloft the ‘Trip of a Lifetime’ tag, the fifth edition of Kerala Blog Express has been successful enough in bringing travel bloggers from across the globe to Kerala. In the course of their journey they would also be documenting their experiences in Kerala for the travelers who look forward to travelling to the state.”
According to Rani George, Secretary, Tourism, “the Kerala Blog Express accords added emphasis to social media marketing and it would help reap the benefits as the unique initiative would reach out to travellers from across the
globe”.
P. Bala Kiran, Director, Kerala Tourism, added that the success of the previous editions of Kerala Blog Express has brought to Kerala Tourism much optimism to go ahead with the fifth edition of the campaign. The tourism department has made the initiative unique by combining various aspects such as campaign on social media, familiarization trip, bloggers’ meet and road trip in a major way.”
The bloggers were chosen from 1727 entries through an online voting system, which accumulated over 58000 votes. The previous edition of the campaign saw a participation of 29 bloggers from 23 countries, selected through similar voting process that garnered 38,000 votes.
The earlier four editions of Kerala Blog Express were immensely successful, and had aided Kerala Tourism to set a new benchmark in destination marketing. All the past editions have brought to Kerala Tourism a combined strength of more than 100 Brand Ambassadors who travelled the length and breadth of the picturesque state.
The unique campaign had garnered over 5000 entries over the last 5 years, and all of them have been mesmerised by their ‘Trip of a lifetime!’ Kerala Tourism had received a slew of entries after the registrations were thrown open for the fifth edition. Those registrations that had been approved by the Tourism Department were pushed ahead by bloggers promoting their Kerala Blog Express profiles on social media. Followers voted on these profiles, and those bloggers who garnered the maximum number of votes have been chosen for the trip.