Hit by pandemic, Kerala to promote monsoon tourism to revive sector
KOCHI: With the tourism sector facing an unprecedented crisis owing to Covid-19 outbreak, the state tourism department is focusing on popularising monsoon tourism this year.The department is hopeful that by the onset of monsoon (June-July) this year, travel issues would end and more tourists could be lured to the state which will revive the industry.
In a recent Tourism Working Group Committee meeting, it was decided to popularise monsoon tourism in other parts of the country. Funds have been set aside for the campaigning. “Earlier, monsoon was considered an off-season for the sector in the state. However, the department has been promoting monsoon tourism since 2016 and as a result, the number of visitors during the period has seen an uptick,” an official said.
“However, with the back-to-back floods in 2018 and 2019, and followed by the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020, monsoon tourism lost a bit of a sheen. So this year, the department will be promoting season on social media,” the official said.The tourism department has decided to bring out short promotional videos in Hindi and English. “In all, `84.96 lakh has been sanctioned for the promotion of tourism during monsoon. As part of it, three short promotion videos each will be made in Hindi and English. We hope tourists from other states, especially from North India, will travel to Kerala to enjoy the monsoon,” the
official said.
The department is also looking to promote responsible tourism across India. As part of it, a fund of `2.83 crore has been sanctioned to bring out video capsules in Hindi, English and Malayalam. “Three-minute-long video capsules will showcase responsible tourism activities. The plan is to attract tourists from other states during the summer vacation. Around 30 video capsules will be produced during the summer,” an official said.
State’s tourism sector was the worst-hit due to the pandemic. In recent months, travellers have started visiting hill stations like Munnar and Wayanad. The tourism sector is a major contributor to the state’s GDP and also the largest employment provider of the state.