Kerala Tourism draws much Shanghai attention

Kerala Tourism has hit the streets of Shanghai in its bid to attract high-spending Chinese tourists from the world's largest outbound tourism market to India's southern state.

A road show and another tourism event held on Tuesday at the sprawling Hotel Jinjiang Tower witnessed a huge footfall and a large presence of the Chinese media, Kerala Tourism said in a statement issued here on Wednesday.

"We were encouraged by the warm welcome China has given us. The active presence of the Chinese tourism industry leaders and also the media to cover the event shows their interest and eagerness to know more about Kerala," said Kerala Tourism Minister A.P. Anilkumar, who led the Kerala delegation to China.

"Chinese companies were eager to know more about Kerala, especially yoga and ayurveda, which have been gaining international appeal," said Kerala Tourism secretary G. Kamala Vardhana Rao.

The Kerala Tourism delegation also had an exclusive meeting with Ctrip, a leading Chinese luxury travel company which has 400 million registered travel members, with focus on organising chartered flights to Kerala.

"This is the right time for a new destination like Kerala to enter the Chinese market," said Edison Chen, Ctrip's regional manager for destination marketing.

Rao said Kerala Tourism "will try to create a permanent centre in Shanghai in association with the Indian consulate to help our trade partners."