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Kerala Tourism has become the first tourism department in the country to open official pages on the social media in foreign languages. By doing so, it has now reached out to the French and German speaking travellers by launching two new Facebook pages –https://www.facebook.com/KeralaTourismeOfficiel in French and https://www.facebook.com/KeralaTourismus in German. The initiative is expected to help visitors from these countries to understand the experiences in God’s Own Country.
"It is very important for us to communicate in different languages of the world. There are people around the world who love Kerala and it makes a lot of difference when we reach out to them in their own language," said Mr. A. P. Anilkumar, Minister for Tourism.
The official French and German pages of Kerala Tourism on Facebook are interactive and reader-friendly with photographs and descriptions, giving glimpses of key destinations across the State, as well as wellness and therapeutic experiences like Ayurveda. France is the second biggest foreign market for Kerala after the United Kingdom. Nearly 1,00,000 French tourists had visited Kerala last year. Germany is also a key market for Kerala as the country tops the list for foreign tourists arriving in the State for Ayurveda treatment.
"In the technology-driven world of today where information can be made available on mobile phones and computer screens the choice of language plays a significant role, especially for reaching out to a wider audience," said Mr. Suman Billa Secretary, Kerala Tourism.
The official Facebook page of Kerala Tourism is hugely popular among global travellers. Started in 2009, it has 8,53,174 fans. Kerala Tourism already has well-established Facebook pages on Ayurveda in English - (https://www.facebook.com/KeralaHomeOfAyurveda) and in German - (https://www.facebook.com/KeralaHeimatDesAyurveda).
Sharing his thoughts Mr. Harikishore S. Director, Kerala Tourism said that Europe is a major market for Kerala in the tourism sector and all necessary steps will be taken to cater to different countries and regions in the continent.
Kerala Tourism has also launched official accounts in multiple social media platforms like Instagram (http://instagram.com/keralatourism), Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/ktofficial/) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/company/keralatourism) for taking its social media efforts to the next level. Kerala Tourism currently runs a contest on Pinterest asking people to create Pinterest boards titled ‘GreatBackwaters’ and display Kerala backwaters related pins on them. Ten winners with best Kerala backwater related Pinterest boards will be given exciting prizes.