Riding on a swift recovery from one of the worst natural calamities, Kerala Tourism has regained the pre-floods tourist footfalls, registering an impressive growth rate of 14.81 per cent in the second quarter of the current year as against the figures of the corresponding period a year earlier.
There was an increase of 639,271 tourists (both domestic and foreign) during April-June this year as compared to the figure during the corresponding period in the previous year. In the first quarter (January-March), the total number of tourist arrivals was 46,12,937 as compared to 43,18,406 during the same period in 2018.
The number of domestic tourists during the second quarter of 2019 increased to 47,73,739 as compared to the figures of 41,49,122 during the same period a year earlier, clocking a hefty 15.05 per cent growth rate.
Kadakampally Surendran, Tourism Minister of Kerala said the positive growth rate in tourist arrivals from both inside the country and outside was achieved by a string of measures that the state government undertook swiftly to repair the damage caused by the floods to tourism infrastructure.
“We also launched an aggressive marketing strategy in both domestic and foreign markets to bolster our presence in the highly competitive tourism marketplace. The results are now there for everyone to see,” he added.
After a span of nearly ten months (May 2018-March 2019 except December 2018), the arrival of international tourists registered a positive growth rate. Overall, there was an increase of 14,654 tourists during April-June 2019 when compared with the figures of 167,666 registered during the corresponding period a year earlier.
“This clearly indicates that Kerala has now fully overcome the negative trend in arrival of foreign guests, which was largely caused by the floods,” the minister said.
Rani George , Tourism Secretary, Govt of Kerala said the domestic tourist footfalls In Kerala was back to normal by the end of 2018 itself, but the international arrivals showed negative trends till the end of first quarter (January-March) of 2019. “This negative trend has now been reversed because of sustained efforts of the Kerala Tourism to allay apprehensions of visitors from abroad about the impact of the floods,” she added.
