Kerala’s tourism revenue zooms to a record Rs24,000 cr

Kerala's tourism industry netted a record Rs24,000 crore of revenue in the 2013-14 financial year, compared to revenues of Rs22,000 crore in the previous financial year.

Kerala also saw record tourist arrivals of over 11.5 million during the year, according to Kerala tourism secretary Suman Billa.

While domestic travellers account for a major part of Kerala's tourist income, the state on an average receives over a million foreign tourist annually, most of them ''upper-end leisure tourists'' he said.

Tourism, which fetches Rs5,000 crore worth of foreign exchange annually, is also the state's biggest foreign exchange earner after remittances from expatriates

Tourism revenues now account for a tenth of the state's GDP.

Bhilla says the focus has been on high-end tourism - those who would spend $100-plus on a hotel room per night. ''For us tourism is just a business like any other. With the time of a traveller being limited you have to get as much revenue as possible.''

According to him, Kerala currently has 60,000 hotel rooms in the ''classified sector'', and additional facilities, including home stays and other informal arrangements.

And, thanks to Ayurvedic treatments, the average stay of an international tourist in Kerala is as high as 18.6 nights, up from 17.1 nights per visitor a few years ago, says Bhilla.

The interesting thing is that more and more domestic tourists are now opting for high-end tourism, he pointed out.

While tourism in Kerala remained Eurocentric, with the UK as its biggest market, the US has now emerged as its second biggest market.

The US market, however, is an extension of the business arrivals, as many business travellers extend their stay in India for a holiday in Kerala,'' he adds.