In a move that could provide the much-needed fillip to hitherto unexplored tourism destinations of northern Kerala, especially the areas around the imposing Bekal Fort facing the Arabian Sea, a group bloggers from around 30 countries visited various picturesque locales here.
The visitors from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and other prominent European nations, who reached Kochi some days ago made their maiden visit here on Saturday in a special bus after visiting locales in Wayanad and Kannur.
Accompanied by officials from the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation and Bekal Resorts Development Corporation (BRDC), the bloggers visited the picturesque Kottappuram backwaters and spent hours in houseboats enjoying the beauty of Valiyaparamba lake.
They later held a meeting at a five-star hotel at Bekal to evaluate the tourism infrastructure facilities of the district.
Malabar kite fest
The bloggers took part in the kite festival on Sunday, organised ahead of the three-day international kite festival to be held on the Bekal beach from May 5.
The kite festival, which from now on would be known as the Malabar kite fest, is aimed at luring tourists to northern Kerala.
Kerala Blog Express
The bloggers as part of the Kerala Blog Express also witnessed the feast offered to monkeys at Idayilakkad kaavu (sacred grove).
The visitors later left for Thiruvananthapuram by train. A senior tourism official accompanying the group said they were expecting that the bloggers would come out with positive blogs on social media which could attract foreign tourists to the district.
