The Hindu : Unprecedented rush in major tourist destinations

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Unprecedented rush in major tourist destinations

By S. Anil Radhakrishnan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM April 22. With outbound leisure travel to the Far East countries from the God's Own Country coming to standstill following the panic created over the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), unprecedented heavy rush is being witnessed over the last few days in the major tourist destinations across the State.

All the major hotels and resorts in the backwater, wildlife, beach and hill destinations across the State had been reporting good occupancy in the last few days. Over 60 per cent occupancy had been reported in the prime properties of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) at Kumarakom, Thekkady and Munnar.

Travel trade and KTDC sources said it is the locals who form majority of those who had checked into the hotels and resorts across the State. Heavy turnout of domestic tourists were witnessed at Veli, the beaches of Kovalam and Varkala, the hill resort of Ponmudi and adjoining Kanyakumari during last few days.

The heavy rush had been attributed to the inability of Malayalees to travel to their favourite destinations abroad and the off-season holiday packages being offered by the hotels. Even KTDC is offering summer packages of seven and five days covering their five prime properties across the State.

Although foreign tourist season has come to an end in the State with the last chartered flight departing to Gatwick in the United Kingdom on March 29, foreign tourists can still be spotted in the resorts and hotels and in the streets. In a resort in Kumarakom, 80 per cent of the occupancy was foreign tourists.

The domestic tourist season in the State peaks up by mid-April and goes on till September. But, the unprecedented rush in the tourist destinations and demand for holiday packages at the hill stations and resorts has come as a boom for the tour operators who had been hit by the large scale cancellations.

The outbound leisure travel of Malayalees to the Far East countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Bangkok, Thailand, Hong Kong and other countries has virtually come to a halt following the SARS alert, says the chairman of the Kerala Chapter of the Indian Association of Tour Operator's (IATO), E. M. Najeeb.

Those who had booked the airline tickets to these destinations on holiday packages had started cancelling them over the last few weeks creating panic in the travel and tourism industry of the State. "The cancellations had been more than 90 per cent. Many tour operators in the State had been forced to promote inbound travel,'' says a tour operator.

The months of April and May are the peak season for the outbound leisure travel from the State as it is summer vacation for the schools and colleges. It is small incentive groups and families who form the majority who travel to Far East countries.

The high-level delegation led by the Tourism Minister, K. V. Thomas, who were scheduled to attend the 52nd annual conference of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) conference at Bali in Indonesia this week, had to cancel the trip due to the SARS alert.

Kerala Tourism had bagged the coveted 2003 PATA Gold Award for Tourism Marketing and "Green Symphony'' of Kerala Tourism has won the PATA Gold Award for its CD-ROM. The coveted awards was to be presented at the PATA conference at Bali on April 14.

According to tour operators, the tourist flow from the State to the neighbouring destinations such as Maldives and Sri Lanka had not been encouraging. However, the traffic from the State to the Gulf destinations, which had been hit following the U.S. military action against Iraq, has started picking up.

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