With two tour operators coming forward, Kerala Tourism is hopeful of bringing chartered tourists from Ukraine during the tourism season.
“We have received expression of interest (EoI) from two experienced charter operators based in Kerala to bring tourists from Ukraine and the formalities are to be completed soon,” Director of Tourism U.V. Jose told The Hindu on Thursday.
The government has allocated Rs. 3.5 crore for the operation of chartered flights mooted by the department and approved by the Working Group on Tourism chaired by the Principal Secretary, Tourism.
Of the amount, Rs. 2 crore is for marketing campaigns in target countries and the remaining for 30 per cent guarantee to be given to the operators for unfilled seats.
The department will restrict the guarantee to be given to the charter operators to 20 per cent, Mr. Jose said. Efforts are on to bring the tourists from Ukraine before summer offering viability gap funding for the first time.
As it will not be possible to bring chartered flights from Ukraine at short notice, Mr. Jose said the aim would be to book charter seats in the regular flights operating in the Kiev-Kerala sector.
“The marketing campaign will help popularise the destination in the key source market in the CIS and will pave way for chartered flights next season.”
The initiative to revive the chartered flights is one of the initiatives chalked out to refresh the brand and make it more appealing, exciting, and desirable to all segments.
The last chartered flight from Russia to the State capital was operated in April 2014. Chartered flights from the United Kingdom had stopped long time ago. The losses caused by the operation and lack of publicity and support from the government resulted in the winding up of the operations.
Tourism officials said a 30 per cent increase in operations would infuse much-needed enthusiasm to the travel trade in Kovalam, the first stopover in the State, and other destinations.
The efforts of leading travel operators to woo Chinese chartered tourists, who are flocking to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, to Kerala during this peak season had not succeeded.
