Category: Kerala

As torrential rain lashes Kerala, the tourism department has decided to postpone the Nehru Trophy boat race, which was scheduled on Saturday (Aug 11) at Punnamada lake in Alappuzha. The tourism department has made the announcement considering the risk from the heavy rain and flood. Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar was invited as the chief guest of the event. About 78 boats will contest in different categories in the race this time. Twenty five chundan vallams (snakeboats) will participate in the 66th edition of the boat race. Apart from it, 26 boats in Iruttu Kuthi ‘A’, four boats each in Churulan and ... Read more

The Neelakurinji season has started and will last till November. Those who wish to visit Munnar during the Kurinji season can visit the Eravikulam National Park to spot the flowers which blossoms once in 12 years. Visitors will be allowed between 7 am and 4 pm. The state tourism department has made special arrangements for the visitors to book online tickets and pre-registered booking facilities. 75 per cent of the tickets will be distributed online and the rest 25 per cent will be distributed direct. The entry to the park is restricted to 3500 visitors per day. For online booking: ... Read more

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) is a Premier Business Networking Event and Business-to-Business team, who have been conducting trade shows in various cities of India. The events provide a platform for interaction and business between tour operators and travel Agents to understand the each other and build good business relationships. GPS is conducting an event in Kochi to facilitate interaction between the buyers and sellers in the tourism industry. The event, which will be hosted at Le Meridian hotel, will be for three days starting from Thursday, 9 August, 2018 to Saturday, 11 August, 2018. First day of the event will ... Read more

Wide body aircrafts can now operate from Calicut airport. The application from Saudi Airlines has been approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, allowing them to operate wide body aircrafts. The airport was partially closed on May 1, 2015, after the Airport Authority of India (AAI) banned operation of wide-bodied aircrafts including Boeing 777 and B747-400 and Airbus 330 for the runway re-carpeting, to ensure safety of passengers. A convoy of Kerala MPs have visited the Union Aviation Minister several times to seek permission for making the airport fully functional. Revamping works of the runways to facilitate operation of ... Read more

Onam celebrations are around the corner. All are searching for the perfect location to spend the holidays with their friends, family and relatives. Tourists – local and foreign- are also looking for the best place to visit during the festive season. For those who want to have fun, a bit of adventure and to appraise the natural beauty of Kerala, a perfect tourist destination is going to be functional on ‘Chingam 1’ of Malayalam calendar (considered as the beginning of the Malayalam calendar year)  or 17th August 2018. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala, will light the lamp to inaugurate the ... Read more

The Kannur International Airport in northern Kerala, which is scheduled to be opened in September 2018, is expected to be beneficial for the Karnataka tourism industry. Top tourism destinations of Karnataka, like Mysuru and Kodagu (Coorg) are likely to be benefited by the new airport as they are within easy reach from Kannur. The new airport is just 58 km from Virajpet, about 90 km from Madikeri and 158 km from Mysuru. The airport will serve as a channel for tourism development since Kodagu is closer to Kannur and thus improve connectivity between the two cities. Tour operators of Kodagu ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: MMTV A mobile application named ‘Chalo’ has launched by the AK Saseendran, Minister of Transport on Friday, 3rd August 2018. It was part of the continuous efforts of the state government to encourage public transport and to curtail the use of private vehicles, which increases congestion, accidents, and pollution. This free mobile app enables live tracking of 850 private buses and a dozen of ferries operated in Kochi and to suburban towns. The app can be downloaded from Google Play Store. The App will become a multi-mode journey planner, once around 15,000 auto-rickshaws are included in it. “Commuters ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: Ram Kumar Varkala beach in Kerala is all set to be an international model for waste management, as the state government is planning for a beach beautification project of Rs 10 crore under the Zero Waste Beacon Varkala. After the successful completion of the Beacon Varkala project, the state government has kick-started the new activities under the new scheme ‘Old is My Gold’. The Minister for Tourism, Kadakampally Surendran, inaugurated the new project, which is implemented with the active participation of students from all the schools which falls under the municipality division. As part of the ‘Old is My ... Read more

There is a secret behind the tasty food of Malabar Café in Grand Hyatt Hotel in Kochi Bolgatty. Here, food is prepared and supervised by ladies only. All chefs in the kitchen are women. Latha is the Chief chef and Manager of the Kitchen and has four chefs to work with her. Aswini, Rehmath, Kavitha and Antish are the assistants to Latha. Photo Courtesy: Mathrubhumi “It is a dream come true job for me; I always dream to have a kitchen only for women. Here I could implement what I have been longed for. I should thank God and the ... Read more

  Association of Tourism Trade Organization of India (ATTOI) has been pursuing its relief activities in the flood affected Kuttanad. Recently ATTOI has distributed drinking water to the relief camps in Kuttanad. As a follow-up action, ATTOI team have visited the flooded areas and the relief camps for the second time. This time Kainakari and the other innermost areas of Kuttanad have been visited. Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel Studies (KITTS), Taj Group, Confederation of Accredited Tour Operators (CATO) and Association of Tourism Professionals (ATP) have also take part in the relief operations of ATTOI. PK Aneesh Kumar, President, ... Read more

After ‘Shoot the Rain’ and ‘Madhu Memorial Cricket Tournament’, tourism fraternity in Kerala is coming up with another sports event. Munnar Destination Makers (MDM) is organising a badminton tournament, in memorial of Sudheesh, who was the Manager of Munnar Cook Maker Resort and Executive member of MDM. The event will be held at the Ace Badminton Academy near East Farm, Adimali on 4th and 5th August 2018. The title sponsor of the badminton tournament is Blanket Hotel, Munnar whereas Uniqloth and Spice Country are sponsoring a cash award of Rs 20,000 and an ever rolling trophy for the winners. Sudheesh was a vibrant ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: Wake’N’Bite Happy news for the ‘Biryani’ lovers of Thiruvananthapuram. Celebrate the friendship day with stomach full of biryani in a festive mood packed with lots of fun. Uday Saumdra Beach Hotel, Kovalam is providing the opportunity to foodies to eat as much as biryani they can, by competing in the ‘Clash of Foodies’ to be held on 5th August 2018, the World Friendship Day. The competition will be arranged at the ‘Courtyard’ restaurant in the hotel. Six pre-registered teams of six members each can take part in the event. The team has the choice of selecting veg or ... Read more

Representative Photo Installation of solar lights at the tourism hot-spots proved to be a great success, as stated by an official from the District Tourism Promotion Council. The pilot project at Kovalam was carried out in association with Kerala State Industrial Enterprises, where 48 solar lights have been installed. The project cost was 31 lakhs. Another 37 lamps were installed at Veli Tourist Village at a cost of 28.5 lakhs. Solar lights are cost effective than electric lights. The lamps installed are with one year warranty and with five years maintenance contract. It also avoids the risk of power failure ... Read more

Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) has been selected for the Champion of Earth Prize -2018, the highest environmental honour instituted by United Nations. CIAL has been selected for this accolade for their revolutionary idea of using solar energy for the airport, which made Cochin Airport the first airport to function fully with solar energy. Erik Solheim, United Nation’s Global chief of Environment and Executive Director, UNEP, stated in an announcement sent to V.J.Kurian, Managing Director, CIAL, that ‘This is the United Nation’s highest environmental accolade and reflects your leadership in the use of sustainable energy” The communiqué further adds “Previous Champion ... Read more

As part of the tourism development campaigns during the period between September and November 2018, Kerala tourism will take part in six trade fairs and will organize 15 B2B meets with focus on Russia, Japan and China. Kerala Tourism will participate in trade fairs in London, PATA, Moscow, Tokyo, Singapore and in Shanghai Mostly tour operators and hoteliers are the participants of tourism road shows, however this time approved Ayurveda centers will also take part in the meets in Japan and Russia. The tourism department is also planning to have more intensive promotional activities in these countries, as the number ... Read more