KOZHIKODE: Even after the huge campaigns and the ‘God’s Own Country’ tagline, Kerala fails to find a slot in the top 10 tourist destinations in India in the domestic tourism map. The records with the market research division of the union Ministry of Tourism finds that in 2015, the number of domestic tourist visits to the states/ union territories was 1432 million as compared to 1282.8 million in 2014 registering a growth of 11.63 per cent. However, the increase did not see Kerala benefitting.
The top 10 States in terms of number of domestic tourist visits (in millions), during 2015, were Tamil Nadu (333.5), Uttar Pradesh (204.9), Andhra Pradesh (121.6), Karnataka (119.9), Maharashtra (103.4), Telangana (94.5), Madhya Pradesh (78), West Bengal (70.2), Gujarat(36.3) and Rajasthan (35.2). The contribution of the top 10 States was about 83.62% of the total number of domestic tourist visits during 2015.
Tourism minister A.C. Moideen points at the previous government’s liquor policy as one of the major reasons behind the drop in the number of tourists, as conference venues and meetings had now shifted to Goa and Bangalore. He suggested a corrective plan to Excise Minister T.P. Ramakrishnan, who, in turn said, he would consider it.
“I would not say that the liquor policy alone led to the drop in the number of domestic tourists visiting, because the numbers of them visiting Kerala was low even when there was no such liquor policy. But corporate companies, preferring business meetings and get-togethers have now increasingly shifted to Bangalore and Goa, and this in turn has affected those who have invested in the tourism sector,” the minister said.
He added that there were also other factors like waste management, lack of adventure tourism, connectivity from airports, food destinations etc. also as being adverse for tourism. The minister said that the government was planning novel projects around Malabar, Western Ghats and Alappuzha without affecting nature. The projects connected to the Western Ghats needed to be worked out in liaison with the Forest Department, he added.
