Tour operators in Gujarat are standing firmly for Kerala as it is aggressively wooing tourists from within the country and abroad after unprecedented floods disrupted normal life and economy of the southern state last month. They informed that tourists from Gujarat have started visiting the state this month.
Tour operators in Gujarat are standing firmly for Kerala as it is aggressively wooing tourists from within the country and abroad after unprecedented floods disrupted normal life and economy of the southern state last month. They informed that tourists from Gujarat have started visiting the state this month.
“Following the floods last month, people had lined up to our offices to cancel the bookings, but now departures of tourists groups to Kerala has resumed,” said Ajay Modi, owner of city-based Ajay Modi Travels. “I have visited Kerala and all its major tourist destinations in late August. Things were by and large normal even them. Now they have mostly normalised, baring some isolated cases,” Modi told media persons in the city at Travel and Tourism Fair in Ahmedabad.
Mahesh Dudakiya, a co-founder of Shakti Travels, said things have normalized and there is no need to panic. “There are some concerns after such tragedy. But now there is nothing to fear about,” said Dudakiya.
Kerala Tourism director P Bala Kiran dispelled myths said that entire transport infrastructure is now functional including airports, railway stations, bus service as well as taxi service. Hotels are also functional. He admitted that floods will take a toll on tourist arrival in the third quarter of 2018, but hopes that it will recover in Diwali season. “Apart from summer and monsoon, the Diwali season is very important for Kerala so far as tourism is concerned. While the situation on ground has normalised, tourists still have concerns because of updates on social media. We want to say that Kerala is back and hopefully with a bang,” said P Bala Kiran while addressing stakeholders in the tourism sector at TTF.
Gujarat is one of the important markets for Kerala with a share of 16% in total arrivals of domestic tourists. Close to 2.39 lakh tourists from Gujarat visited Kerala in 2017, which is about 24% higher than in 2016.
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