THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state Tourism Department has launched an online bidding game, offering holiday packages to various destinations in the state at virtually no cost. First-ever in the country for a destination, ‘Visit Kerala Bid Wars’ will be available on the Facebook page of Kerala Tourism.
The bid, joined by accredited tour operators in the state, includes packages ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs 78,000. Aimed to woo domestic travellers, the bid is organised as part of the ‘Visit Kerala 2015’ campaign inaugurated by Kerala Tourism Minister A P Anilkumar in the national capital in April.
“Kerala Tourism enjoys round-the-year engagement with our huge fan base across the world,” said Kerala Tourism Secretary G Kamala Vardhana Rao. “This bidding process is a unique way to acknowledge the bond between each other. It will also help us continue our association with our fans by providing an opportunity to gain first-hand experience of being in the place they love,” Rao said. The campaign will be anchored on an online bidding system known as the ‘lowest unique bid’. In this system, the package, which is up for bidding, will be won by the person whose bids the lowest as well as unique. If two people bid the same price, that amount will get cancelled. For instance, if a person bids for a package worth Rs 20,000 at Rs 10, the package will be awarded to that person if nobody else has bid Rs 10 and no other unique bid is made which is less than Rs 10.“The online bidding not only carries forward the conversation with our fans, but also takes it to the next level,” said Kerala Tourism Director P I Sheik Pareeth. “The opportunity for our fans to spend a peaceful day on a houseboat in the famed backwaters or stroll in the picturesque tea hills of Munnar will go a long way in consolidating our association with them,” Pareeth said.
For making the bidding a success, Kerala Tourism has partnered with accredited service providers from the state such as Kerala Tourism Development Corporation, Voyages Kerala, Intersight Holidays, Spice Land Holidays, Cosima Holidays, Dravidian Trails, Indus Holidays, Kerala Travels and Travel Planners. The package period ranges from two nights to 10 days.
The bidding will happen for one package each at a time. The details of the package and its worth will be available on the Facebook app.
Kerala Bid Wars will takes place on the official Facebook page of Kerala Tourism (http://bit.ly/KeralaBidWars). An android app titled ‘VisitKerala BidWars’ is also available on Google Play Store.