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Kerala Tourism to accredit tour operators tourism trail

Kerala Tourism has begun the process of accrediting tour operators in the State, to help them tide over the crisis which has come from the 30 per cent fall in arrival of foreign tourists.

In the long run, this is expected to help the operators, taxi drivers, travel guides and a whole lot of people associated with the sector. Apart from owners of houseboats and hotels, tour operators were among the worst hit by the global-recession-indu ced downfall in the sector. The agency would also take along home-stay owners in the trade fairs that it participates in, to attract guests, especially domestic tourists. In the coming months, Kerala Tourism would showcase the State’s tourism products in 17 trade fairs that would be held in A and B grade cities in India.

“The home stays would be selected from the around 700 such properties in the State. Most of them cannot afford to put up independent stalls in the fairs because of the huge cost involved. Marketing is another area that many of them have to catch up with,” said an official in the agency.

It formulated two schemes to woo domestic tourists.

The Dream Season tour itineraries were tailor made to offer travellers budget packages, during the traditional off-season in the State – the summer months and the monsoons. Under the second scheme - Jet2Kerala, discounted return airfare packages (including accommodation) are offered to Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode, from different places in India.

The Tourism Director M. Shivsankar said that the fall in arrival of international tourists to Kerala was compensated by the increased interest shown by domestic travellers.

“By accrediting tour operators, their credibility and the quality of the services that they offer will increase. We would soon come out with a plan to woo tourists during Onam and another one targeting international guests,” he said.

Tour operators have welcomed Kerala Tourism’s (KT) initiative to accredit them. “The names of accredited operators would be mentioned in KT’s website and we would become its partners in marketing and other programmes,” said E M Najeeb, the president of the Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry, and the chairman of the Kerala Chapter of Indian Association of Tour Operators.

Apart from these, Kerala Tourism is organizing familiarisation tours to enable national and international tour operators to get a first-hand feel of the State’s tourism assets.

There was a good response to partnership meets arranged in prominent cities within the country from March.

A photo feature of Kerala’s landscape, published by the Vogue magazine, too is expected to pay dividends once the tourist season picks up.

John L. Paul

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