Kerala - Kochi   

Kodiyeri moots better marketing of tourism

KOCHI: Minister for Tourism and Home Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said that poor marketing strategy is the biggest hindrance to the development and full utilisation of the State’s tourism potential.

“We have to develop the skill to market our tourist centres,” Mr. Balakrishnan said. He was talking at a function organised at Thripunithura Hill Palace to discuss tourism development in Piravom constituency on Tuesday.

He said the Tourism Department was in the process of formulating elaborate marketing strategies to promote tourism. He said a campaign would be launched to promote the tourist centres.

Mr. Balakrishnan said garbage was posing serious threat to the tourism sector. “Unless the State is made garbage-free, all the gains made in the tourism sector will be sabotaged,” he said.

The Minister said the Government was in the process of formulating projects in association with the respective local self-government bodies to make all tourist centres garbage-free. Only then could these centres be properly marketed, he said.

He said a Rs.6-crore project would be implemented for the maintenance and renovation of the Hill Palace. The project would be completed within four years, converting the place into a tourist centre of archaeological importance in the entire South Indian region, he said.

He said last year alone, Hill Palace attracted three lakh visitors, generating an income of Rs.60 lakh.

The Minister said a campaign needed to be carried out to promote the numerous historically important monuments and places in the State. “History students in colleges should be encouraged to take out study tours to these spots as part of their academics,” he said.

Besides, a large number of foreign tourists visited Kerala with the objective of learning about our history, he said. The Minister said places like Hill Palace could be developed as centres catering to their needs.

He said the department formulated the “My village – tourism friendly village” campaign to improve the participation of local self-government bodies in tourism development. Under this, each panchayat was permitted to place tourism proposals up to Rs.10 lakh, which would then be implemented jointly by the State and the respective panchayat, he said.

Mr. Balakrishnan opined that participation of private entrepreneurs was essential to fully utilise the tourism potential of the State. “The role of the private parties and how effectively the Government could intervene to control them needs to be decided,” he said.

M.J. Jacob, MLA, representatives from all the 10 panchayats of the Piravom constituency, District Collector A.P.M Mohammed Hanish, the Archaeology Department officials attended the meeting.

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