Ernakulam becomes the most liked destination for international tourists

Friday, May 17, 2019

The ‘Queen of Arabian Sea’ carries on to be the most liked destination for international tourists in the state. Last year, Ernakulam district recorded a tourist arrival of 4.88 lakh footfalls, registering a rise of 7.53 per cent over the year before it, in spite of a vast region under it getting impacted by the August floods.

In 2018, Thiruvananthapuram, the second most preferred Indian destination registered a foreign tourist arrival of 3.42 lakh, a drop from 4.20 lakh in 2017, as per district-wise statistics of international national arrivals published by the Tourism Department.

Increased calling of luxury cruise liners with foreign tourists at Kochi port has been highlighted as the main reason by the tourism authorities. More than 100 vessels with tourists anchored here in recently ended tourist season, including the likes of world’s largest cruise liners like ‘Spectrum of the Seas’, ‘MSC Splendida’, ‘MV Queen Mary 2’ and ‘MV Boudicca’.

“It was a real challenge for us as most countries have issued travel advisories following the deluge. We initiated a series of measures to win back the faith of tourists,” said a senior Tourism official.

Special reception for international visitors, that included performance of traditional arts, was assembled in cooperation with the Tourism department and the District Tourism Promotion Council for tourists at the Kochi port and the Cochin International airport. Programmes like bike rallies and car rallies from Kochi to Munnar were organized to show that the roads were completely repaired.

“The DTPC conducted 3,500 tours from November 13 to May 11 for foreign tourists with 60 per cent of them to Fort Kochi and Mattancherry region. We also provided capacity building training to 340 auto and taxi drivers on how to enhance the experience of tourists arriving here,” the official said. As Alappuzha and Idukki districts recorded tourist arrival footfalls of 95, 522 and 44, 833 respectively, the least foreign tourist arrival was in Palakkad (1953) and Pathanamthitta (1967).

In 2018, the total foreign tourist arrival in the state was 10.96 lakh as against 10.91 lakh the year before. International tourists arrivals registered a depressing growth in months of August and September (-18.46 and -18.16 respectively) when the state was affected by deluge.

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