Kerala - Kochi   

Kerala Travel Mart begins

Staff Reporter

Home stays, resorts, farm and medical tourism hog the limelight

SHOWCASING KERALA: A demonstration of Ayurveda massage at a stall at the Kerala Travel Mart in the city on Thursday. - Photo: Mahesh Harilal

KOCHI: Home stays, resorts, farm and medical tourism hogged the limelight at the Kerala Travel Mart which began here on Thursday.

Organised jointly by the Kerala Travel Mart Society and Kerala Tourism, it will be on till Saturday.

There is unprecedented participation from home and farm stays, thanks to the tremendous growth in these two sectors. Fifty of the over 300 home stays in the State are participating in the meet which has around 1,200 buyers from 50 countries. About 500 of the buyers are foreign and the rest Indian.

Small and big home and farm stays are capitalising on the demand from honeymoon couples and tourists who seek solitude, to sell their properties. This could in the long run turn out to be a blessing for farmers who are finding the going tough in the State.

Naveen Aditya of The Timeless Traveller, a farm stay which has units across the State, says: "Guests can live with the farmer host and take guided or unguided trails of the farmlands which are spread over many acres. They can also participate in harvesting the manifold crops grown there, even pulling out the weeds. Most farm stays use organic methods of farming, which is an added attraction. We cultivate Njavara rice, nutmeg, spices, ginger, white pepper, vanilla etc.".

Among the other sellers was Philipkutty's Farm, Kottayam, which is a predominantly coconut farm where spices are an inter-crop. "Guests are taken on a sunset cruise on country boats," says Anu Mathew, host.

Then there is Olappamanna Mana, a unique heritage home stay tucked away in Vellinezhi village in Palakkad, and Carmelia Haven, a plantation resort in Vandanmedu, Thekkady, with an Ayurveda centre and boating facility.

Estate Bungalow is a farm stay in the Pala-Ponkunnam route, hosted by Anita Jose, wife of KTM Society president Jose Dominic. "I converted our 66-year-old `tharavadu' into a farm stay. The 25-acre plot has rubber, spices, vanilla and vegetables, apart from buffalos and goats. Some guests go tapping rubber, along with the workers. The advantage is that with guests coming in, the owners' interest in the property and subsequently the yield, increase," says Mr. Dominic.

Another untapped market in the State is honeymoon tourism. Kerala is increasingly becoming a honeymoon destination.

Many hospitals, especially those specialising in dentistry, have made their presence felt in Kerala's medical-tourism field. Says Sundheep V. Elias, chief dental surgeon of Smile Stylers, a clinic in Thiruvananthapuram, "A dental implant, which can be done for about Rs.35,000 here costs Rs1.8 lakh in the U.K."

A Cyprian, Andy Prodromou, heads the marketing and consultation wing of `The Beach of Pollethai' in Mararikulam. There is a water body running by the side of the property, which he says, is an ideal place to switch off from fast life.

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