Kerala Tourism now eyes China and Saudi

Encouraged by the response of the Chinese tourism industry to Kerala and its niche tourism products, Kerala Tourism will organise two roadshows and participate in a four-day Beijing International Tourism Expo (BITE) in May.

After a gap of four years, two roadshows will be organised in Saudi Arabia too to woo the high-spending Arabs during the summer vacation to the State. The State is also gearing up to make its presence felt in Arabian Travel Mart (ATM) scheduled to begin on April 25.

The overseas campaigns of Kerala Tourism, forwarded to the Election Commission in view of the model code of conduct, had received clearance, official sources told The Hindu . Kerala is attending the BITE beginning on May 20 for the second time to increase tourist arrivals from China by 10 per cent. Tourism Minister A.P. Anil Kumar had led the delegation from the State to China for the maiden initiative in July last.

The roadshows, aimed to market the State, will be held on May 24 at Chengdu, the capital of South-Western Sichuan province, and on May 26 at Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong. The road show held at Shanghai last year was a big success.

As a follow-up, the State had initiated steps to promote China online and through Sina Weibo, Tencent QQ, Youku and WeChat which are easily available on mobile devices. Translation of content to Chinese and maintaining of the official portal of Kerala Tourism on China Wide Web was also part of the marketing drive. The roadshows in Saudi Arabia will be held on May 2 at Riyadh and on May 4 at Dhammam. As many as 25 and eight stakeholders had already registered for participating in the roadshows in Saudi and ATM respectively.