It certainly would not seem out of place for a Westerner to holiday in Kumarakom — an international model responsible tourism destination, during Christmas.
But this season, the destination here did not take off at the best of times. Kumarakom, on the shores of Vembanadu Lake, did sustain destruction during the recent floods. However, it seemed more damage had been caused to its image than the destination itself.
Business as usual
Incredibly, almost four months after the devastating floods, it is business as usual at the destination. Almost all hotels and homestays are booked and just about all the houseboats here have begun full-scale operations.
“Travel took a nosedive soon after the floods, but the recovery has been extremely well,” said K. Roopesh Kumar, coordinator, State Responsible Tourism Mission. According to him, the destination had received a near-zero response during the Puja holidays and the Deepavali season, when it usually witnesses a boom in domestic footfall.
For instance, village life experience packages in Kumarakom and Vaikom — the most popular of the products offered here — witnessed a sharp fall in August this year to just 40 tourists opting for it as against 80 in the same month last year. The numbers fell further to 16 in September and in October, it touched 40 even as about 280 others chose to stay away and cancelled their visits.
Signs of recovery
The segment, however, showed signs of recovery from November with the number of visitors crossing the 200-mark even amidst the high number of cancellations. It recorded heartening numbers for December — 640 guests in 120 packages.
With four months of high-season tourism ahead, the industry is hopeful of the village’s other offerings gaining momentum as a huge number of foreign clients have begun flowing in. “The business this time seems to be a little down, that is about 30% of the seasonal average and we had little problems till November and December. But it is picking up in January and February and the turnaround offers hope,” said Samboo, general manager, Coconut Lagoon, a luxury resort operated by the CGH Earth group in Kumarakom. He says much of the losses in business early in the season can be offset if rival markets like Sri Lanka do not take advantage of the situation.
