THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major boost to Kerala Tourism’s Caravan project, the first-ever integrated caravan park - ‘KAVA Eco Camp and Caravan Park’ - in the state is set to open in Malampuzha next week.
The state-of-the-art caravan park that offers scenic view of Malampuzha dam has a slew of luxury amenities including swimming pool, recreational facilities, restaurant, coffee shop, accommodation units, electronic charging portals and luxury amenities.
The park has a capacity to accommodate around six caravans and six camper vans at a time. The hybrid park which has all basic amenities, including sewage and waste treatment facilities, will be inaugurated on Monday.
Launched in 2021, Keravan Kerala (caravan tourism) aims to give close to nature travel experience for visitors by developing caravan parks and specially built tourism caravans for travel, leisure and stay at unexplored destinations across the state. The much-touted project failed to gain any traction owing to lack of adequate infrastructure and proper planning.
Sajeev Kurup, managing director of Ayurvedamana and the owner of the caravan park, said that the hybrid park offers all amenities available at a luxury hotel. “This is a model project that aligns with the caravan policy of the tourism department. There are investors who are ready to invest but they don’t have a model. This is a benchmark project that could woo more investors into caravan tourism,” he said.
He said that a network of parks should come up in the state to make the project a success. “Those coming here should be able to camp in other unexplored locations too. Else the project will not be a success,” said Sajeev Kurup.
Owing to lack of infrastructure, the owners are renting out caravans for film shoots and other purposes to stay afloat. CEO of Citrine Hospitality Ventures Ltd Prasad Manjali, who opened the caravan park in Vagamon which was shut down, said that they could operate the park for hardly 10 months.
“We have two luxury caravans and now they are deployed for film shooting and other purposes. We are hardly getting any tourism-related enquiries. We invested around Rs 2 crore into the project and the operational cost was very high. Charging Rs 25,000 for a day is too high and even luxury deluxe hotels are much cheaper,” said Prasad Manjali.
An official of the tourism department said that they are trying to evolve caravan tourism in such a way that the product will cater to all segments. The department has tied up with Kerala Startup Mission to prepare a caravan trail linking all districts to promote caravan tourism.
“Once the caravan trails are ready we will have a better idea on where to locate the caravan parks. All hidden attractions in the trail will be identified so that the visitors have more to explore,” the official said. He said that the government will set up two caravan parks at Bolgatty and Ponmudi this year.