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View fit for royalty
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The eight-day temple festival at Tripunithura begins tomorrow. A city-based tour operator has come up with an innovative way to showcase the traditional festivities, says K. PRADEEP
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In full regalia The procession of elephants at the Sree Poornathrayeesa Temple festival is a sight to behold
And now it is Festival Tourism. Usually this encompasses a wide array of events, making it one memorable, colourful event.
Tripunithura, with its rich culture, history and heritage, is now being marked as a hot destination for this new tourism product. Coincidentally, the famous eight-day festival at the Sree Poornathrayeesa Temple that stands out as a unique collage of Kerala’s traditional performing arts kicks off exactly at the start of the tourist season.
Attempting to cash in on this trend is D’Compass, a city-based tour operator.
The single binding factor of all specialised tour events is its value as a marketing tool for tourist operators. Tagged on is the undeniable impact of these products in gaining a foothold in a fiercely competitive industry. It provides a knock-on effect in terms of extended stays and travelling itineraries.
“Certainly, the temple festival will be the main attraction. But our aim is to turn Tripunithura into an important tourist destination. Usually, this royal town is bypassed by most tourists. The only place in most tourist itineraries is the Hill Palace. But there is so much more Tripunithura can offer. This is what we will be trying to do,” informs Karthik Varma, Managing Partner, D’Compass.
With tourists becoming more well-travelled and sophisticated, special events tourism is a growing market. Tourists are increasingly becoming adept at self-packaging their visits around the international events calendar. And tour operators are, every season, creating new avenues where the tourists may lack the necessary experience.
Regal glory
“Three cruise liners will touch the city during this time. We have tied up with four agents to bring those interested in watching a temple festival ‘live’ on the days they are berthed here. We have taken one of the balconies, now in the possession of the Cochin Devaswom Board, on lease for eight days. Incidentally, this balcony is the same one from where the Maharaja used to witness the procession of 15 caparisoned elephants and the pulsating ‘pancharimelam’ on the festival days.
“This place will be carpeted, lit up, chairs to seat around 30-35 people will be arranged from where they can watch the festival in regal glory. In fact, most of the agents were thrilled by the concept. This time the tourists will not be charged anything for this facility. For us it will be something like promoting a new concept. Hopefully, from the next season onwards we will be able to sell our own Tripunithura Festival Package.”
K. K. Mohanan, former chairman, Tripunithura Municipality and now member of the Cochin Devaswom Board, feels that this idea would give a fillip to prospects of tourism in this town, “It is a good start. The ‘thattumaalika’ or balcony that we have would have otherwise remained dusty, unused. Giving this on lease will not only give us some money but also help in the maintenance of the place. But more importantly bringing tourists to watch this colourful, grand festival and also get them to know the culture and heritage of the town will enable in spreading the popularity of this town.”
The Tripunithura Package will include, apart from the temple festival, stay in a couple of the palaces, tying up with the cultural organisations for lecture-demonstrations and lots more.
Classical art forms
“Tripunithura has three well-run cultural organisations like the Kathakali club, the International Centre for Koodiyattam and the sangeetha sabha. We want to associate with them in providing the tourists a true glimpse of the classical art forms. There is ample scope for organising a village tour, a concept that has now become a huge hit, beginning from the little river that flows under the historic iron bridge . Even now there are small islands where the tourists can watch toddy tapping, making of coir products etc. The members of the erstwhile royalty now run a community kitchen. We would like to enter into a tie-up with them in providing the tourists an ethnic lunch. There are so many things that can be done and hopefully next year they will fall in place,” says Mr. Varma.
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