Golden days are ahead for Kerala Tourism
First quarter of the tourism year depicted substantial increase in the number of tourists in Kerala. Number of tourists (local and foreign) during the first three months of the year shows 17.87% increase than the previous year. 6,54,854 more tourists visited Kerala during this period, which is the highest rate of increase since a decade. Same period in the last year, the number of tourists visited Kerala was only 36,63,552; while it is 43,18,406 in 2018.
The number of indigenous tourists shown 18.57% increase so far. In 2017, increase in the number of local tourists for the whole year was 15 Lakhs; while in 2018 there is already 6 Lakh’s increase for the first three months. Largest increase is marked in Idukki district, which includes Munnar – 38.89%. Second place goes to Alappy with 37.28% increase. Eranakulam bagged first place in the total number of local tourists visited during the first quarter – 8.88 Lakhs. Trivandrum is in the second place with 6.93 Lakhs. There is an increase of 1.3 Lakh tourists in Trivandrum when compared to the previous year. The least percentage of increase was marked in Kollam – 4.36%
The number of foreign tourists denoted an increase of 12.13% in the first quarter. 47,656 more tourists visited Kerala during this period than the previous year. The total increase in the number of tourists visited for 12 months were just 53,451 in 2017. Eranakulam is in first place for hosting the largest number in foreign tourists as well – 1,92,000 (22,186 more than last year). There was 4.5% decrease in number of foreign tourists who visited Trivandrum. Meanwhile, Idukki and Kottayam indicated increase in the numbers – 60.91% and 44.14% respectively.