The Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) has become the number one tourism corporation in the country, both in terms of the number of hotels at tourism centres and growth rate.
KTDC chairman Cheriyan Philip said here on Saturday that the KTDC that started off with three hotels in 1966 had 70 units now. In place of eight hotels, it was marketing 30 hotels in the global tourism market from last year. He described the 14 Tamarind Easy Hotels for middle class customers as a big achievement.
The projects being implemented this year are the Kochi International Marina on Bolghatty Island, the nine-storeyed Kerala House in Chennai, a premium resort on the drive-in beach at Muzhappilangadu, renovation of the bird sanctuary at Kumarakam, G.V. Raja Convention Centre at Kovalam Samudra, new cottages in Munnar Tea County and the Bekkal Beach Resort.
Mr. Philip said the KTDC had made record achievements in the area of turnover, working profit, net profit, labour value, and tax payment during the last four years. The turnover of the KTDC was Rs.64 crore and the working profit Rs.5 crore in 2008-09. It paid Rs.9 crore by way of various taxes to the government. The salary bill of the employees came to Rs.21 crore. The expenditure on salary had increased by 42 per cent during the last three years on account of pay revision and DA hike. A sum of Rs.30 crore was spent for modernisation and maintenance and repair of hotels during the last three years.
The chairman said the profit had increased though expenditure also showed an upward swing.
E-governance
E-governance was implemented as part of modernisation. It was possible to keep a check on financial irregularities after the computerisation of accounts.
