KOCHI: Having tasted success with its e-book, which lists properties across the state available for tourists both domestic and international, the Kerala Homestay and Tourism Society (K-HATS) is now planning the launch of a booking platform. The group is planning to launch the portal, www.stayhats.com, by the end of this month. According to the society, the portal is powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
K-HATS, which had been seeking the government’s help for getting global exposure to its tourism promotion activities in Kerala, launched the e-book, a directory of sorts containing details about the best accommodation facilities available for tourists in Kerala, in 2023. Published on Google, the e-book has been downloaded by more than 1.5 lakh people, including those from 16 nations, said K-HATS director M P Sivadathan.
About the portal, he said 200 members of the 1,500 registered with K-HATS have been included in it.“We are preparing the portal in a bid to reach the entire world. There is a long-term vision behind its creation. We want to include everyone in every destination and move forward in a way that customers won’t have to face any hassle while making reservations,” he said. Another aim behind the portal is to promote many unknown destinations within Kerala.
“For Kerala, after the pandemic, domestic tourism footfall has trumped foreign tourist arrivals. And these domestic tourists often want accommodation that is viable as well as secure. People often call up their Malayali friends or guides to get information about the homestays. To make things easy for them while promoting businesses, it was decided to develop the portal. It is very Kerala specific, unlike Airbnb or OYO,” said Sivadathan.
For the e-book, there was no advertising, he said. “We promoted it via Google and other social media platforms to achieve our goal of introducing the directory to the world. While the paperback version, printed and published in the US by Notion Publications, did not sell copies in the first year, 1,960 printed copies were sold via offline stores this year,” Sivadathan said.
Emphasising that K-HATS does not make any income from the e-book, Sivadathan said, “However, the confidence that it helps in promoting the properties of K-HATS members across the world is growing.”