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Imaginative ventures backed by precise execution enabled Kerala to bag the largest number of honours at the 2013-14 National Tourism Awards. Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, President of India, conferred the southern state’s tourism ventures with a total of ten titles.
While Kerala Tourism got four awards in categories ranging from literature to cinema to IT to a pioneering project involving local people, the state’s private entrepreneurs in the industry got six.
Mr. A.P. Anilkumar, Minister for Tourism, Kerala along with Mr. G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, Secretary, Kerala Tourism received the National Tourism Awards for Excellence in Publishing Foreign Language, Best Tourism Film, Most Innovative Use of Information Technology and, fourthly, for its success in Responsible Tourism Project. The function held in the national capital was attended, among others, by Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister for Tourism and Culture.
While it was a German brochure kit headlined ‘Eat Shop Trek’ aimed at wooing the tourists of that Western European country that won Kerala Tourism the award for Excellence in Publishing Foreign Language, a movie titled ‘The Great Backwaters of Kerala’ earned recognition as the Best Tourism Film. Both the brochure and the film were conceptualized and designed by Stark Communications. The portal www.keralatourism.org, designed and developed by Invis Multimedia, won the award in the category for the Best Website, even as its novel Thekkady initiative enabled it to share the top honours for the much-touted Responsible Tourism Project which encompasses all forms of tourism that seek to minimize negative economic, environment and social impacts.
In the private sector, the awardees were: Dravidian Trail (in Foreign Exchange Earnings), Coconut Creek Farm (Bed & Breakfast), Coconut Lagoon (Heritage Classic Category), Marari Beach Resort (3-star hotels), Vivanta By Taj, Kumarakom (4-star) and Somatheeram Research Institute & Ayurveda Hospital (Wellness Centre).
Mr. A.P. Anilkumar, after receiving the award, said Kerala has submitted to the Centre a multi-project plan worth Rs 5680 million that aims to boost the state’s tourism profile. In a proposal submitted to the Union Minister for Tourism, the state has sought the clearance of a Rs 2830 million Pilgrim Tourism Circuit (with focus on Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Thiruvananthapuram), a coastal tourism project of Rs 1080 million, an eco-tourism project of Rs 770 million (of which Rs 520 million is for Vagamon-Thekkady and the rest Rs 250 million for Gavi in Pathanamthitta district) and Rs 1000 million for Nila Tourism Project.
Mr. G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, Secretary, Kerala Tourism, said the establishment has been consistently striving to position the state as a global destination with a focus on sustaining and preserving the land’s nature, culture and tradition. “We have managed to make the destination a known brand in key source markets,” he added.
