New Delhi: Kerala is looking at increasing the number of tourist arrivals in the state to over 1.37 crore in 2015 as it plans an array of activities to promote the state as perfect holiday destination.
"We are targeting to attract over 1.37 crore tourists to Kerala in 2015. Out of these over 12 lakh would be foreign tourists and rest around 1.25 crore domestic arrivals," Secretary Tourism, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers, Govt of Kerala, G Kamala Vardhana Rao told PTI.
He was speaking on the sidelines of an event organised to promote the state as a favourite destination.
In 2014, foreign tourist arrivals into Kerala stood at 9,23,366, up 7.6 per cent from 2013, while domestic tourist arrivals for the year were at about 1.17 crore, up 7.71 per cent from 2013, he added.
Meanwhile, according to a release issued by the state government, foreign exchange earnings for the year were at Rs 6,398.93 crore, an increase of 15.07 per cent from the previous year.
Total revenue (including direct & indirect) from tourism during 2014 was at Rs 24,885.44 crore.
"To promote the number of foreign arrivals, we are taking a number of initiatives. We would be exploring new markets such as China, Japan and Korea apart from campaigns in Europe which contributes between 50 to 55 per cent of the foreign visitors to the state," Rao said.
Kerala tourism will also develop new destinations and has declared the period from April 2015 to March 2016 as 'Visit Kerala Year', he added.
Leveraging the increased air connectivity, a focused ayurveda and monsoon campaign will be conducted in the Middle East where 90 per cent of the Diasporas are from the state, Kerala Tourism said in a statement.
The other campaigns will focus on the backwaters, beaches and positioning the state as home of ayurveda, Rao added.
