Kerala offers ‘dream deals’ for budget travellers

By Ashraf Padanna/ThiruvananthapuramKerala has now strongly positioned itself as an all-season destination thanks to an aggressive multiplatform campaign, officials said yesterday.The Kerala Tourism has now embarked on a novel scheme aimed at wooing visitors during the off-season, the tourism board said in a statement.The campaign titled ‘Dream Deals’ aims to leverage the potential during the peak-summer months of April-May, followed by the monsoons.The discount-rate scheme, which is on from April until the end of September, is now poised to provide a new phase of experience for visitors, as the three-month monsoons are set to hit Kerala on June 1.“This is also because June is peak summer and school holiday time in northern India, where rains are few and far between,” said A P Anil Kumar, the state’s tourism minister. “They will be particularly tempted to sense the cooler climes of Kerala till end-August.”Tourism Secretary Suman Billa said: “The lean season has yet another advantage with discounts on hospitality expenses and the charges will be lower by around 30%.”The details of ‘Dream Deals’ are available at www.keralatourism.org/dreamdeals where visitors can create their preferred itinerary at an economical rate. The proposed visit plan will then be automatically forwarded to five accredited tour operators in the state who will get back to the applicant with the best rates.Kerala Tourism will shortly launch a print ad campaign in leading English and regional newspapers besides general-interest and travel magazines.It will also tie up with airlines to have the Dream Deals brand on the back of boarding passes. Also, there will be ads displayed in Delhi Metro stations.Kerala received 858,143 foreign tourists last year, up 8.12% over the previous year’s figure of 793,696. Domestic tourist arrivals showed an increase of 7.75% to clock 108, 57,811.The foreign tourist arrivals peaked during December-February while more domestic tourists arrived during October-December.