Hosting International Kite Festival to promote Kerala Tourism
Published April 20, 2010 | 
Famously known for its beaches, backwaters and wild sanctuaries, Kerala is all set to kick-off a new trend of wooing more tourists by means of an international kite festival that will be hosted starting May 1 at Kappad beach in Kozhikode district.
Apart from India, kite flyers from top 10 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Kuwait, China, France, UAE and Britain will be seen displaying their talents for three consecutive days that will attract several thousands of tourists from all over Kerala.
Quite popular in Gujarat, Kerala is the second state to host kite festival along with a seafood festival and a cultural fest that will showcase the local art and culture of the state.
Kapad beach, in Kozhikode is the venue chosen for the kite festival, an extremely favorable seashore for flying kites, the beach is known for its history when Vasco da Gama the Portuguese navigator landed here in 1498. This unique kite festival will attract larger crowds and would enhance the Kerala tourism, which had a dull season few months back.
The kites to be in various shapes and sizes, some even huge as two storey building will cost anything from INR 25,000 upwards, the materials for making them would be supplied to those who want it at free of cost.
A classroom session will also be conducted for those who are interested to know more about kite flying and learn about it.
Related post: Get set to fly high!
UK cabs ply with glimpses of Kerala
Published March 29, 2010 | 
Soon on the trails of the innovative marketing strategy of wrapping up the Rajdhani Express with the glimpses and captivating images of Kerala now it is the turn of the UK cabs to flaunt glimpses of Kerala. Kerala Tourism board has come up with this great idea in which the cabs of Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham will be sporting images that portray the culture and nature of Kerala.
This innovative scheme is to attract more tourists from the UK, which is one of the biggest foreign markets for Kerala tourism. In the year 2009, Kerala received over 7 lakh foreign tourists out of which 90 percent was from Europe , with UK being the biggest tourism market in Europe, followed by Germany, France and Italy.
Over 120 cabs with Kerala branding are plying on the streets of Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham to create more awareness about the tourist potential of Kerala. Manchester and Birmingham has 50 such cars with images of houseboats, elephants, ayurveda and Mohiniyattam dancers while Glasgow has 20 cabs. This branding exercise will be on till April 15th and after assessing the response, the scheme may be extended.
The ongoing branding exercise on UK cabs will not just help to bring in more tourists from the UK but also will help to promote superior quality tourist packages.
The state tourism director, Mr. Sivasankar said “ We have found that the average number of days that a foreign tourist is spending in Kerala has increased to around nine”.
In a bid to promote Kerala tourism in UK, road shows were also conducted in London, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham from March 15-18, which saw the participation of over 22 trade partners from the retail travel trade and the wholesale industry of Kerala. With the aggressive and innovative marketing techniques, Kerala tourism is well poised to make a big leap this tourist season.
Dad and Daughter ‘on wheels’ – A biker’s ruminations
Published March 22, 2010 | Coming to office is full of adventure and harrowing experiences. Almost every vehicle would surpass me in a bid to make it first to the destination, the competition is fierce. Since I had experienced falling off my bike twice, I am nowadays generous enough to let others overtake me. The funniest actors on road are the adventurous two wheeler riders, who will make use of every inch of space to push their vehicle, lift your leg for a while and they will park a motorbike right underneath. The interesting part is on the way we all come across a railway crossing, which for most of the time remains closed and I see everyone who all overtook me waiting there. I was wondering like how meaningless it is to risk your life speeding and still not making it.
So this had been my usual routine, but today it was a bit different. Among all I saw an elderly man accompanied by his daughter on bike who seemed more impatient than others to get on to the other side. His daughter seated behind him was going through her notebooks undeterred with the traffic chaos. I realized the daughter must be rushing for her exams and the father to his office, so either one of them is late. The old man zipped past like a bullet, but then again no escape; I caught him at the next traffic signal.
I was closely following the father-daughter duo and suddenly saw the girl drop her notebook. It flew off on to the road. Damn it, they are going to be late again I said, but no! The girl made no effort to stop her Dad to pick the notebook and I saw she was acting helpless and holding her head like; ‘Can someone save me please?’ I felt strange, was perplexed, why did she not ask her dad to stop; after all she needs that book. Not giving a second thought as they sped away, I turned my bike and got the notebook that was lying on the road, which was partially torn, maybe couple of vehicles ran over it. As again they could not go beyond the next traffic signal, I approached them and handed over the notebook to the kid. She did not show any sign of courtesy or feeling of relief, but I could sense she was so happy to have it back. I asked her ‘Why didn’t you let your dad know that you had dropped the book? Her silence said it all. She didn’t want to upset her father because they don’t share a great camaraderie. Was this something related to me?, I thought to give her father a piece of my mind and told him ‘Don’t just be a Father, be a friend to your kid she needs you’. I don’t know how effective was my advise, but when I turned back all I could see was the man going even faster. Can’t help it”, said I to myself and then took a deviation and went my way.
Understanding is a major key in becoming an effective role model for your child or any person, as we say, “Understand – don’t take a stand.”. Why not parents tell their kids that ‘extremely powerful and simple way to live your life is to live it, and the whole purpose is to smile and realize that there are no bigger issues in life, can they do it? After all, we owe it to our children.
The new generation of Kerala is changing, the shift from traditional joint family setup to ‘nuclear’ family is more opted these days. Working parents are stressed resulting in communication gap with their children. Is the above episode a part of that culture? In fact I was left wondering as to how the new generation, hailed by all as the harbingers of change, would fare, with this kind of a treatment meted out at their homes and from their parents.
Kerala Tourism News- Sea Planes, Big B and more!
Published March 9, 2010 | 
Kerala Tourism studying feasibility of sea plane service considering the state’s backwaters, rivers and coasts. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the Tourism Minister had this to say…
Considering the distinctive environment condition of state’s backwaters and inland-waterways, Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) has been asked to conduct the study on the possibility of ‘sea plane services.
However, the government has no plans to conduct the service directly. It would only provide necessary logistic support to private sector which come forward with proposals, he added.
They are taking into consideration the environmental factors and pollution issues that may crop up with such a project, the minister has assured.
In other tourism news, Kerala is following Gujarat and has asked Amitabh Bachchan to be the brand ambassador for tourism in Kerala. Star power to boost tourism is indeed a great idea.
After the Kerala Motif Rajdhani Express and Big B’s mundu appearance, looks like Kerala Tourism is going all out to woo domestic tourists.
Personally as advertisements go the Incredible India ad for Madhya Pradesh was not only creative, it captured the folk side of the region and is aesthetically a delight to watch again and again! Don’t you agree?
For now let’s hope sea planes and Big B can bring in more tourists to our state.
‘Dream season’ launched to attract tourists
Published February 24, 2010 | 
The Kerala government has announced the ‘dream season’ from April to September to draw more domestic tourists. The fourth in the Dream Season campaign series, it will also have interesting travel packages and offers too.
The Kerala Tourism Secretary V. Venu said
A wide range of great-value travel packages for domestic tourists will be effective from April.
Ranging from backwater houseboat cruises to hill station holidays, ayurveda rejuvenation packages to monsoon honeymoon trips – the tourists will be offered the very best of Kerala by hotels, resorts and tour operators in Kerala
It is heartening to note that the global recession has not adversely affected the tourism industry in Kerala as there has been a substantial increase in domestic tourism during the previous year. To promote domestic tourism, which registered a six percent growth last year, the state tourism department is planning to conduct 15 more road shows in major cities like Punjab and Haryana. The ‘dream season’ holidays have always been hugely popular among tourists and in the coming days, Kerala would be playing host to many more enthusiastic tourists from all over India and abroad.
Two Cruise ships in Kochi
Published February 1, 2010 | For me and my friend, going to the Subhash Chandra Bose Park in Kochi in the evenings and spending time there, chatting about, sharing thoughts, woes and joys and at the same time enjoying the cool backwater breeze is almost a regular thing. But there had been a break of about a month or so, because of both of us being busy and all and hence yesterday, being Sunday, we both found time to make a round of our usual haunt, though on weekends it’s thronged by families and kids.
This Sunday was special indeed. For as we reached the part and stationed ourself at a vacant place, we saw opposite us, by the berth in the Wellington Island a huge ship, presumably a luxury liner. Steam was being let out and I guessed, being one who has travelled a lot in ships ever since my childhood and have noted different kinds of ships, that it was getting ready to sail.
Very soon the tugboats swung into action and after a while, the ship hooted sirens and then it started slowly turning around and in about half an hour, we saw it set sail from the port of Kochi.
That was ‘Queen Mary 2′, the luxury cruise liner that had reached Kochi yesterday morning, bringing about 2,700 tourists to the shores of Kerala. (This was the third time that ‘Queen Mary 2′ touched Kochi). The tourists had toured the city of Kochi and had visited locations like Alappuzha, Vaikom and Vallarpadam, after which the giant ship set sail to Phuket, with the 2700 tourists and a crew of about 1000.
This Sunday also bore witness to another cruise vessel, ‘Le Ponant’, a French registered one, visiting Kochi. This was the second time that ‘Le Ponant’ was visiting Kochi, with about 40 tourists aboard. They are all busy visiting places in Kochi and it’s learnt that the ship, with a crew of 40 will set sail today from Kochi.
Very positive signals indeed to the tourism sector in Kerala. Maybe my friend and I can hope to see more of such luxury liners during our regular evening visits to the Subhash Park.
Rajdhani Express painted with Kerala Scenery
Published January 18, 2010 | 
Kerala tourism is going all out, making a bold statement and wooing tourists from all over India to Kerala by getting the Rajdhani train painted in Kerala colours. With the tag “Go Kerala” or “Chalo Kerala“ beckoning tourists into the lush green state.
It’s not just one or two coaches, but the entire train, all 17 coaches of the air conditioned Rajdhani Express are now painted with colourful images of Kerala. Painting the Rajdhani Express is like having a giant moving billboard that goes through Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka on its way to Thiruvananthapuram and back. Think of the number of people who will be seeing the splendour of far-off Kerala!
Promoting domestic tourism is the motive here and when the summer months begin in the north of India the train with its beaches, backwaters and green landscape should lure people to the state.
I’m thinking of the effect it will have in dry Rajasthan and busy Maharashtra - the dreams it will weave of holidays in Kerala in the people who see the train. I think all trains could do with a splash of colour, a reminder of how beautiful the country is, and we could all do away with those red coloured trains which look dusty even after the coaches have had a wash.
According to the data available with Kerala Tourism, domestic tourist arrivals to Kerala last year touched 75 lakh (against 7.5 lakh international tourists), reports The Hindu.
Can’t wait to see the train roll in, in all its fresh hues and bring from within thousands of tourists to our (singing) shyama sundara kera kedaara bhoomi (Kerala). 
Pics source: The Hindu
How to do India in 17 days and take home an award
Published December 9, 2009 | That’s precisely what Miguel Quental, a young Portuguese backpacker did, last November, according to a report in the New Indian Express (dt Dec 9, 2009).
What makes his effort unique is that despite the travel advisories issued by the West post the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks, Miguel was among the few intrepid travellers who decided to go ahead with their itineraries, terror or no terror.
A wise decision indeed, in retrosepect, it seems to the Lisbon camera operator who works on corporate and documentary films for a living.
Miguel’s India story began when he landed in New Delhi on Nov 26, 2008, armed with a base-model handycam, a gift from his dad. For the next
17 days, Miguel travelled across India, shooting places, people and anything and everything else that caught his fancy.
The result was a one-hour long video sans audio, which Miguel says was a concious decision, as he was in a ‘different’ culture, ’9,000 km away from home.’
Now for the twist in this tale. Somewhere along the line, Miguel came to know about the first ever Kerala Travel Video Festival being held by Kerala Tourism together with YouTube. And he promptly edited out the Kerala part of his India video, making it into an 11-minute video journal titled ‘Now I Know Why They Call You God’s Own Country.’
The video won Miguel the first place in the fiercely contested competition which had 200-plus entries. The competition was organised to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Kerala Tourism’s official website www.keralatourism.org
KTDC to woo tourists for shopping festival
Published November 21, 2009 | 
The Kerala Tourism Development Corporation Hotels and Resorts (KTDC) will ensure the participation of domestic and international tourists in Grand Kerala Shopping Festival-Season 3.
The KTDC has taken steps to provide all materials of the GKSF at hotels, resorts and other units of the corporation spread across the State. Tourists who check in at KTDC properties in December and January (the peak tourist months in Kerala) will be motivated to visit the establishments that are partners of the GKSF. The GKSF authorities have asked the establishments who have become partners of the 45-day festival to distribute the coupons to the shoppers only from December 1. The GKSF authorities have also urged the festival partners to give wide publicity to the prizes and organise inauguration celebrations at the local level on December 1. Mahindra and Mahindra have joined hands with the GKSF by becoming gift sponsor of the shopping festival.
Kerala's own drunkards
Published November 17, 2009 | For God’s sake don’t ask me how, but Parasuram threw his axe in the wrong direction and that created Kerala and later blamed it on God saying ‘Its his country’ (Gods own country). Kerala the land of coco(nuts) is famous for its landscapes, Backwaters, Beaches, Houseboats and Hill stations. National Geographic traveler reads ‘ Kerala is more popular than Taj Mahal in tourist circuits’. But, today I shall highlight one more thing that Kerala is famous for.
If you happen to stroll on any road in any city of Kerala and you’ll see people standing in a queue, well this is it. You will see guys from all walks of life rich/poor/young/old/middle age waiting patiently. Obviously they are not here for ration (we do not need it). It is for a distilled drink that contains no added sugar and has at least 20% or above ABV. Technically we call it “Liquor”, simple. We Keralites believe that literally for any occasion, liquor and more liquor is the best way to rejoice.
Thankfully these liquor outlets are located at all major points in the city making it easy for the drunkards to bump into the non-drinkers thereby tempting them to give in. Driver’s nightmare, if you happen to drive this way, not because you have to continuously honk the boozers to move off the road, but for the temptation.
100% literate (come on we know to read and write alphabets), the intellectual Malayalee says there is no ill effects of drinking alcohol.
No Liquor no Kerala – this is one state in India, which is fully dependent on drunkards for survival. Kerala holds the dubious record of consuming maximum liquor. Ironically liquor is the second largest source of income -’A whopping 150 crore each year.
Strange are the ways of Kerala, like; the above Axe-effect, we have a King called Mahabali. No one know what his business is, but His Excellency is smart enough and prefers to stay underground. They say he comes out during Onam when the liquor sales goes up.
It’s a sad-STATE-of-affair, being a drunkard state, Kerala also has the the highest divorce and suicide rates. Finally, we are not laid-back people, see us in action if we are on a strike or on a protest or in front of liquor shop and you can see the adrenaline rush. God’s own Country, can’t complain.