Kerala Tourism has roped in tennis legend Steffi Graf for endorsing its upcoming campaign to promote Ayurveda.
The 46-year-old, who has 22 Grand Slam singles titles to her credit, will endorse print campaigns and television commercials to promote Ayurveda in national and international tourist circuits.
“Ms. Graf has, in principle, agreed to our proposal to endorse the campaign and to associate with us in the forthcoming tourism fair in Berlin,” P.I. Sheikh Pareeth, Director, Kerala Tourism, told The Hindu .
The quest for an eminent sports personality to endorse Ayurveda, one of the prized tourism offerings of Kerala, started after enquiries came to provide treatment and therapy to injured Brazilian footballer Neymar in God’s Own Country during the World Cup last year.
The State Cabinet meeting on Wednesday cleared the proposal of Kerala Tourism and gave the nod to sign the agreement with Ms. Graf, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said.
Mr. Pareeth said the terms and conditions would be worked out with the tennis legend. The endorsement by Ms. Graf comes at a time when Kerala Tourism is observing Visit Kerala Year to attract more tourists to the State.
With this, Kerala Tourism’s decades-long search for a brand ambassador to promote the destination and its tourism offerings has met with partial success.
In 2012, tourism authorities failed in their effort to rope in cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar as the brand ambassador. Before that, they tried to rope in megastar Amitabh Bachchan. Though Mr. Bachchan agreed to the lend his name in 2006, the central leadership of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) shot down the State plan, saying the thespian was already the brand ambassador of Gujarat, ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
