KOCHI: In God's Own Country version 2.0, Kerala needs to focus more on Indian tourists, rather than international tourists. This is mainly because the number of outbound travellers from India for leisure travel is increasing 25% every year and Indians are among world's highest spenders when travelling abroad, with their spending expected to increase from $ 23 billion in 2018 to $ 45 billion by 2022.
Tourism experts speaking at the Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) believe that it is this group of Indian tourists who need to be attracted to Kerala. And Kerala tourism's USP should be nature.
"Kerala needs to have a clear strategy to get more domestic tourists to the state. For this, Kerala needs to reinvent itself and create meaningful experiences, provide challenging activities," said Suman Billa, principal secretary (industries & NORKA), speaking at KTM.
At KTM the message was clear that the Kerala brand 'God's Own Country' that was coined some 33 years ago is now fatigued and Kerala tourism needs rebranding. "What worked in the 90s will not work in 2022. There are four factors for this technological change being the key factor," said former bureaucrat K Jayakumar, who as the director of Kerala tourism department for seven years from 1988 when the department initiated a massive transition under the name of 'God's Own Country'. Jayakumar said that along with technological change, there is behavioural change in the new visitors. "The young potential tourist is an "unsentimental" decision maker. There is no scope for emotional and sentimental attachments. We can't depend on their loyalty and their tolerance level is also not very high. With Covid, the emphasis is on quality and hygiene. Also, online technology has empowered the customer and there needs to be continuous validation and reality checks," said Jayakumar, who is currently director of Institute of Management in Government, Thiruvananthapuram.
