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Kerala Tourism is having a global presence and with its clear strategy for growth sheer marketing activities,it has g ained a lot of tourist from all over the world, Especially from UK, USA, France and Australia. This article

aims to understand the marketing strategy of Kerala Tourism makes suggestion and develop a model to

improve the tourism within & outside s tate.

Diversity in India is a known concept in India and its worth to market these diversities through tourism andIndian tourism and travel industry is est imated to be Rs 5533 Billion rupees as per Dun and Bradstreet. With

173.48 billion of earnings from tourism in state it w ill provide an oppo rtunity to increase trade combined w ith

other tourism also gives an immense scope to diversify its portfolio of trade opportunities to foreign tourist.Let us se e how Kerala is pitching to Foreign and Domestic tourists.

Image Source: http://osakaair.com/kerala-natural-wonders

The Mission and Vision of Kerala Tourism is to position itself as a global destination for tourism which,based on the advantage of the local resources, thereby attracting investment and resulting into sustainable

development for the people of Kerala.

Framework of Kerala Tourism- This framework below is as per the National Tourism policy for Kerala State

on which the whole strategy is formulated.

Source-a report on Keralas Approach to Tourism Development: A Case Study Ministry of Tourism Government of India and CRISIL

The implementation of this framework leaded to tourism development and the feedback received fromdomestic and international tourist were that they wanted to revisit the state and What Kerala has done is

that it has made tourism a sustainable business venture and developed on a positioning strategy withproper Tourism Marketing Communication Mix.

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Gods Own countrys contribution to India- Kerala which has a mixture of Beaches, Backwater, AncientMedicines, Natural wealth, Multicultural cuisines good weather and highly educated people makes Kerala

irresistible to foreign and domestic tourist. In 2010 Kerala had 3.7% share of the to tal foreign tourist arrivingin India. We can find out from the below table that how Kerala has grown since 2002 till 2010 in terms of

Number of arrivals and Foreign Exchange earned .

It was also ob served that from 2002 till 2010 the Top 3 countries tourist who visited Kerala we re UK, France

and the USA . And the top 3 places visited by them were Ernakulum, Thiruvananthpuram, and Idukki. The

Top 3 favourite places visited by Domestic tourists w ere Thrissur, Ernakulum, and Thiruvananthpuram. Thedomestic tourist wa s pred ominantly from States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,

Delhi and Gujarat. These states are sharing the border with the state and where there is high number of

corporate houses .

SWOT analysis of the State

So what kind of profile the tourists have?- The USP of Kerala lies in the following- Backwater Tourism,

Ayurved and Spa, Houseboats Tour, Temples, Islands and Tea Gardens. The favorite month for the touristis between November to January. The STP for Kerala could be de fined as

Segment -SEC A,B, and C, Age Group between 20-59, Mostly People into Service, Industrialist and Self

Employed

Target -More of Corporate a nd Every class o f the Society

Positioning -MICE tourism (Meetings Incentives Conventions and Exhibition) combined with Eco tourism for

Business to urism, and Eco and Heritage tourism internationally and domestically for non business tourism

Tourism Segmented by tour objectives Based on the above segmentation Kerala has the followingsegment various tourist package as a) Dream Season Off season Budget tourist Packages b) Best of

Kerala Luxury Tourism c) Captivating Kerala Tea Gardens, Spice Plantation and Fort d) Kerala Culinary

Tour Food Tourism e) Exotic Kerala Resorts in Nature Temples and Ayurvedic Massage f) Hills & backwater Backwater and House Boat promotions g) Honeymoon package Houseboat, Wildlife resort, Temples,

Backwater resort h) The Treasures Of Kerala Promoting Beaches and Nature etc.

What Marketing C ommunication strategy Kerala Tourism Implements?

1. Web Promotions Kerala Tourism website receives nearly 1.5 million hits and 2.50 lakhs page views per

month. The key contents in the website includes Key Contents of the Website include Ayurveda, Cuisine,Boat Races, Plan Your Trip, Festival Calendar, Shopping Options, Picture and Video Gallery, Destination

Gallery, and Visitor Que ries.

2. MICE Tourism It is positioned as the Corporate Playground. This product is highlighted in all roadshows and trade meets. The websites through its strategy of trade promotions uses its USP like the

backwate r and promote foreigners in the pictures to indicate tourism while they are o n their business trip.

3. Separate promotion of Eco Tourism and Business Tourism


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4. Separate International Print and Website Advertising Promoting Beaches and other destinations with a

foreign people in the advertising .

5. Sponsorship of Events like Co-sponsor of Kovalam Literary Festival, the India International Boat Show,organized by Kerala Tourism jointly with India Tourism, Sponsored VAGA Fest a t Kerala

6. Participation in International Fairs- Kerala tourism participates in all the major international events

related to its identified source markets. Some of the key international fairs the state has participated in the

year 2003 were-International Tourisms Bourse (ITB) 2003, Berlin, Arabian Travel Mart (ATM), 2003, Dubai,PATA Travel Mart 2003, Singapore, W orld Travel Mart (WTM) 2003, London e tc.

7. Overseas Partnership -Kerala is the first state in India, and indeed the world, to become the partner

state to the W orld Travel and Tourism Council which is a glob al forum for travel and to urism

8. Collaboration With PATA and Germany for international Branding by participating in meets and forums

and using the Bilateral Agreement Germany has a greed to develop ment of tourism market in Kerala exampledevelopment of backwa ters, Solid waste manage ment, Human Resources Development in Kerala are some of

the initiatives

9. Certification of Places- Certifications of tourist resources like Gold Star and Silver Star Ce rtifications forHouseboats, Green Palm Certifications for Eco-friendly Measures, Green Leaf Certifications for Ayurveda

Centres, STEP Certification for Safe-To-Eat Places certification creates benchmarks for tourist spots and

gives tourists a n Idea a bout to urism credibility in terms of food, safety and services.

Way Ahead The Tourism Department of Kerala projects a growth rate of 7 % per annum in foreign touristarrivals and 9 % annual growth in domestic tourist arrivals as per Tata Economic Consultancy Services and

12% as per 12 th Fiver Plan. The following s teps can he lp ensure prosp erity in the Local and MICE tourism

Encourage Upcoming Places Through the tourism data we can analyze that the places like Guruvayoor,

Kumarkom, Munnar, Wayanad, and Muzhupalingad are the upcoming tourist spots. These spots can beclustered with other less tourist areas and a theme based concept can be introduced to promote the same.

The advantages of this theme would be more employment in the nearby areas, access to tourist through itstransport, and customized tour package s w ill give a different tourist experience altogether.

Encouraging Free Market concept This will boost trade within the state. Kerala is known for tea

plantations, cashews, sea foods, and spices. These are generally manufactured by small and medium

farmers. The state can give temporary license to market their products in other part of the states for say 15days for 3 months. The infrastructure cost can be bo rne by the go vernment and it can earn revenue through

license and taxes. These temporary markets will boost trade in non core areas, better bargaining power tothe domestic and foreign tourist, and more tourist attraction to the places.

Focus on MICE tourism Exports products like Fishes, Cashew to country like USA, UAE, Netherlands,Russia, Germany and Asian countries plays a n important role in developing MICE tourism. These exports are

more through the ports, so for MICE tourism, the exporting country nationals can be pitched for Foodtourism, Medical Tourism and Backwater tourism.

This tourism would set benchmarks for setting up Industrial centres in the states which will give additional

boost to development of states. So the Meetings and convention centres would have water sports and

backwater resort facility with the flavour of local cuisines. The state could identify the exports towardscountries like China, Russia, Malaysia and Scandinavian Countries and can give tax holidays for countries

that increase the exports over the years.

Advantage of being Tech Savvy The website can be made interactive and the tourism state minister

speech can be uploaded laying its vision and seriousness towards its tourist and a mobile app whereinonline booking, Location information, and bud get calculator can help prospe ctive tourist.


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So from the strategy and suggestions above the model can be followed for MICE and general Tourism

Conclusion Kerala being one of the states which is an example of Sustainable tourism needs to marketvarious other forms of tourism like Heritage, Food and Medical tourism by the strengths o f the clustered a rea

as suggested above. This needs support from Private players and the government needs to act as afacilitator for these activities in terms of certifying the tourist spots for benchmarking activities . The

government need to enter into bilateral agreement to solve the infrastructural issues domestically and

internationally which will further bo ost e conomic development.

This article has been authored by Sushant S Srivastava from SIES College of Management.

If you are interested in writing articles for us, Submit Here

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