Backpacker Boom

Trevor Paynter, marketing manager at the Ernakulam-based Kagna Tours & Travels, the car rental company, is bushed. The tourist season (November to February) was hectic for Kagna.

The car rental business soars by 100 per cent during November to February every year because of demand from tourists, he explains. But quiet has set in again and Paynter is no longer under pressure.

During the peak tourism season, owners of small lodges and inexpensive hotels in Ernakulam, Thiruvanthapuram and major towns in the state have a frenetic time. Occupancy rates soar to 100 per cent between November and February, up from against 40 to 50 per cent during the other months.

Welcome to Kerala's tourism boom -- a tourism boom with a difference. The foreigners who hit the state aren't the well-heeled who arrive on packaged tours -- for the most part, they're backpackers who stay at cheap lodges.

Notes Paynter: