KOCHI: The number of bars in Kerala is on a steady rise as more and more hotels look to cash in on the lucrative tourism business.
As per the State Public Information Officer’s (Abkari) reply to an RTI query by activist Raju Vazhakala, the number of bars in Kerala rose from 718 in 2022 to 856 in 2024. By 2026 (March 30), the number rose to 903.
Ernakulam was first with 211 bars, followed by Thrissur which had 116 bars. Kasaragod had the least number of bars at 11. The RTI reply revealed that districts like Malappuram, Pathanamthitta and Wayanad saw a drop in the number of bars. In Malappuram, the number dropped from 50 to 34, while in Wayanad and Pathanamthitta, it dropped by one each to 17 from 18 and 26 from 27, respectively.
In the reply, the excise department also said the annual licence fee for a bar in Kerala is currently `35 lakh.
There has been an increase in the number of applications for bars, said hotelier Jose Pradeep, who is also the president of Kerala Travel Mart.
“With tourism becoming a lucrative business, more and more hotels are coming up in the state. And an important part of the hotel industry is the bar. When guests, especially foreigners, arrive they check whether the hotel has a bar or not,” he said. Jose said a lot of five star hotels are also coming up in the state. “It should be noted that the numbers include wine and beer parlours,” he said.
3,000% rise in 10 years
The number of bars in Kerala saw a whopping 3,000% rise in the past 10 years. During the Oommen Chandy government, Kerala had 748 bars. However, in 2016, when the LDF came to power in 2016, Kerala had just 29 bars as the rest had lost their licences following the amendment to the Abkari Act amid the bar bribery controversy.