Kerala tourism ministry has decided to set up a separate cell
to tap its non resident Keralites (NRKs) for developing its tourism
infrastructure, said Kerala Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
Kerala rely heavily on the tourism industry that attracts tens
of thousands national and international tourists to its numerous
serene beaches dotted with lush palm trees. Talking about his
move to set up special sell for NRKs, the minister said, both
the central and state government are doing whatever they could
to promote tourism in the state, but that will not be sufficient
to improve the infrastructure.
And for this, his government is planning to utilize the resource
of its overseas people who are based in different countries. He
said that an Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation will
also be set up to look into tourism infrastructure development.
Kerala tourism industry’s major hurdle in enchasing this
sector is the lacks of rooms for visitors. Kerala with just 8000
rooms needs at least 20,000 rooms during the peak season. Now,
it’s planning to promote home-stays in the state to address
the increasing demand for rooms.
But despite the scarcity of rooms, there is no dearth of visitors
of who want to visit ‘God’s Own Country’—Kerala.
In 2006, there was a surge in the number of foreign tourists
visiting Kerala, which went up by 23.67 percent from 2005 and
touched a record 428,534 while 6.2 million domestic visitors arrived
in the state, up by 5.41 percent from 2005
