Kerala Tourism conducts road shows in Melbourne, Sydney

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Tourism authorities organised a road show in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, the sixth biggest tourism market, to attract more visitors from Down Under to the coastal state in India.

Representatives from both private and public sector in Kerala participated in the road shows last week, which came after a gap of two years.

Around 70 leading wholesalers, tour operators and travel agents from these two cities were satisfied with the offerings from the Kerala Tourism honchos, a government statement said on Monday.

Australia accounted for 35,244 foreign tourist arrivals in 2015.

"Kerala is already a well known brand in Australia. Upon seeing the surge in tourist arrivals from this lucrative emerging market, both the Kerala government and tourism stakeholders were keen to better explore and exploit the potential.

"We hope our strong showing at these road shows will lead to more industry tie-ups and greater tourist footfalls to Kerala," said state Tourism Minister A.C. Moideen, who reiterated the state government's commitment of top-down support to the sector.

"With improved air connectivity and ease of travel between the Asia-Pacific region and Kerala, there has been an impressive growth in arrivals from Down Under," said V. Venu, Principal Secretary (Tourism), Kerala.

Lending heft to the campaign was Rakesh Malhotra, Consul of India, Melbourne, and Vinod Bahade, Deputy Consul General, Sydney, who were both chief guests at the events in their respective cities.