BENGALURU: As part of their promotional activity, Kerala Tourism Department created a platform for property owners and travel agents to interact and network in the city on Thursday.
The Kerala Tourism Partnership Meet is the second such event being hosted by the Kerala government this year. The first was held in Chennai and the next will be in Hyderabad.
Venu V, principal secretary to the department, and U V Jose, director of Kerala Tourism, were present on the occasion.
Venu said that in September 2016, foreign tourist arrivals showed an uptick of 5.6 per cent compared to September 2015.
Domestic tourist arrivals in September 2016 increased by 6.01 percent compared to the same month last year.
Foreign exchange earnings for 2015 was Rs 6,949.88 crore — a 8.61 percent increase from previous year. The total revenue (direct and indirect) from tourism in 2015 was Rs 26,689.63 crore, which is a 7.25 percent increase from the previous year, he added. The event showcased a cultural extravaganza with performances such as Mohiniyattam, Kathakali and Theyyam.
Popular on Facebook
Interestingly, in a short span of time, Kerala Tourism Board’s Facebook page has garnered 12.8 lakh followers, the largest figure for any tourism board in India.
Kerala Tourism’s website has been translated into various languages including Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu, as well as foreign languages like Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish.