THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Seeking to give a major impetus to its efforts to woo tourists from USA, Kerala Tourism held a string of roadshows in the prominent cities of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, eliciting a tremendous response from the buyers at each event.
Kerala Tourism Principal Secretary K. S Srinivas, who led the high-profile official delegation, made presentations in the three cities, showcasing new tourism offerings, globally acclaimed assets, and projects under the Responsible Tourism initiatives that travellers would experience in the state.
At the New York roadshow, Randhir Jaiswal, Consul General, Consulate of India, New York, was the chief guest while V. Senthur Kumaran, Asst. Director, India Tourism, also attended the event.
Dr T.V. Nagendra Prasad, Consul General, Consulate of India, San Francisco, California, was the chief guest at the San Francisco event.
A ‘Go Kerala’ contest was also conducted in all three cities.
“We have been making concerted efforts to expand the spectrum of tourism products and events that would appeal to all types of travellers, be it a backpacker or a high-end spender who would also like to indulge in adventure tourism and explore the unexplored places. We are quite enthused by the significant presence of buyers at all the roadshows in the American cities,” Srinivas said.
“USA has been a major market for us, and such roadshows give a significant traction to wooing tourists from that country,” he added.
The delegation included prominent trade partners from Kerala, such as CGH Earth; Alhind Tours and Travels; Cosima Holidays India; Pioneer Personalized Holidays; Kairali Ayurvedic Healing Village; and Somatheeram Ayurveda Group.
Very recently, The New York Times had featured Kerala as ‘one of the 52 places to visit in 2023’ while TIME magazine had last year mentioned the state as ‘One of the World’s Greatest Places to Visit in 2022’.
As per the 2019 statistics, USA ranked second in tourist arrivals to Kerala with a figure of 109,859, while the total number of their arrivals in India stood at 15,12,032.
