THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:The domestic tourist arrival to Thiruvananthapuram has seen a significant rise in the first three months of the current year with as many as 6,93,231 domestic tourist visiting the capital city, an up of 23.73 per cent against the tourist inflow recorded during the corresponding period a year ago.
According to the tourism department, the increase in flow of pilgrims to the famed Padmanabhaswamy temple has literally pushed up footfalls in Thiruvananthapuram city to 12,17,446 in 2017 itself, showing a growth of 18.63 percent over 2016. And the growth rate was 47.04 percent over year 2013.
The new figures also underscore that the capital city has been emerging as a one of the prime destinations for the domestic tourists. With an array of projects being set to be launched in a year or two, the capital city is poised to register a significant stride in the tourist arrivals.
The infrastructure development projects in the Akkulam Tourist Village on the banks of Akkulam Lake, which boasts some of the most picturesque spots in the southernmost district along with a boat club, a well-equipped children's park, snack bar and a paddle pool and a swimming pool for adults, and a facelift project conceived for the Madavoorpara heritage project, which has been selected for heritage conservation by the Department of Archaeology to develop it as a heritage site which involves restoration of the cave temple at Madavoorpara, setting up of a heritage park and installing a telescope to enjoy close views of the surroundings, especially the coastal side, are expected to give a push to the domestic tourism here in the coming years, said officials.
Besides, the project to transform Kovalam, a favourite destination of tourists, into a world-class tourist destination by 2042 by developing Kovalam-Poovar Tourism Corridor, the vision and layout of the 30-year master plan has been developed by Kerala Tourism, was drawn up by the authorities with view of giving a major facelift to the tourist sector in the district.
However, the dip in the foreign tourist arrival to the capital city in the first three months of the current year suggest that the department has to devise new strategies to attract the foreign tourists to Thiruvananthapuram. One major reason for the dip in foreign tourist arrival to the capital city is the drop in medical tourism arrival and loss of charm of the Kovalam beach.
In the last year also, considering the foreign tourist arrivals, Kovalam came second in preference and Varkala third in state-wide. A comparative look at the trends throw up results which showed that Kovalam, which was the prime destination of international tourist till 2015, has been losing its charm in 2016 and 2017 over Kochi. Meanwhile, nearby beach destinations like Varkala and Poovar showed significant growth.
While the growth rate of Kovalam was just 5 percent in the last five years, Varkala registered a growth rate of 130.02 percent in the last five years, with the total foreign footfall in Varkala zooming to 1, 33,658 in 2017.
Foreign Growth Domestic Growth
TVM (Jan-March) 1,36,547 -4.51% 6,93,231 23.73%
Some of the Tourism Projects conceived for the year
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- Destination development of Thekkan Kurishumala in Thiruvananthapuram
- Development and Beautification of lower sanatorium, Ponmudi
- Proposal for Veli swimming Pool and Park development
- Development of destination facilitig at Manavila TVM
- Development of Ponmudi and Renovation of 15 cottages of KTDC
- Madavoor Para - Destination Development
- Aruvikkara tourism project
- Development of Kappil beach and Boat club
- Development of Neyyar Dam as a Tourist destination
- Development of Aruvikkara Dam site and its surroundings
- Tourism Destination Development _ Varkala Papanasam and Development work for the beautification of Papanasam beach
- Providing New Fencing near Cliff at Varkala,
-LED lighting Project at Akkulam Tourist village