A group of 15 popular travel bloggers and social media writers from Saudi Arabia is on a 10-day sightseeing tour covering selected destinations in Kozhikode and Wayanad districts and Kodagu in Karnataka.
The team, which arrived in Kozhikode on Thursday, will watch the Splash monsoon tourism fest in Wayanad on Friday. Sandeep Kumar of Gateway Malabar Holidays, which in association with the Kerala Tourism Department is organising the tour, says the effort is to make use of the social media influence of these selected writers to popularise the tourism attractions of northern Kerala in West Asia.
Some of the selected destinations for the trip in Wayanad and Kodagu include Wayanad Wild Life sanctuary, Uravu bamboo grove, Kabini riverside, Kuruva Island, Dubare Elephant camp, Tibetan settlements and Abbey falls. Accommodation for them will be provided by popular resorts in these locations.
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Arrangements are also in place for giving them a taste of the village life and local cuisines. Outdoor self-cooking events, ride on bullock carts and coracles, nature walk, sunset cruise in Kabani, tribal dance and bird watching are there on the itinerary.
Organisers of ‘Splash’ say the writers’ posts on social media are expected to draw more visitors to the northern part of Kerala. Such a promotion will also be rewarding for local tourism entrepreneurs and investors who faced a setback in last year’s devastating floods, they say.
Last year too, there was a group of 30 popular bloggers in Kozhikode and other locations of northern Kerala as part of the Tourism Department’s Kerala Blog Express promotion event. There were representatives from over 25 countries. Martial arts legacy of Malabar, culinary varieties of Kozhikode and beaches were the major attractions for the bloggers who took part in the trip with the tag line ‘Trip of a life time’.
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Eminent photo journalist Nick Ut too was in the city as the State guest last year to capture its popular tourism destinations. Accompanied by a platoon of photo journalists, the Pulitzer prize winner had then snapped the beauty of Kozhikode beach, Tali temple, Beypore and Kalari training.