---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 00:22:49 +0500 From: FREDERICK NORONHA <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Kerala plans Kerala wooing wealthy tourists with culture capsules by T.P. Alexander, India Abroad News Service Thiruvananthapuram, Feb. 16 - Kerala's main tourist draws are no more fixed events on the calendar. They can be held as and when tourist officials like, depending on the presence of wealthy foreign visitors in the state. For instance, the famed boat race at Punnamada Lake in Alappuzha, an annual extravaganza that draws tourists from different parts of the world, can now be made to happen any day. It was recently held exclusively for the benefit of a handful of rich tourists from the United States. With all the trappings of Kerala's traditional boat race, the show was as thrilling as the annual affair - sans the crowd and the din. Though arranged solely for the benefit of the high-spending 25-member team of U.S. tourists, mostly women, it proved to be a windfall for boat race clubs in Alappuzha, whose mainstay is the annual Nehru Trophy race. The affluent tourists were also given a feel of the old world charm of an ancient Kerala village. A "theme fishing village" too was set up overnight, complete with all the paraphernalia of villages in this state - a tea stall, a toddy shop and a potter, a goldsmith and weavers at work added to the old world ambience. The offering for the tourists, who came by a chartered jet to Kochi, was topped by a party at which ethnic food made in earthen pots was served. The taste of traditional Kerala food and the total Kerala experience "floored the Americans", tourist officials claimed. The tourists were members of the Guggenheim club and patrons of New York's well-known Guggenheim Museum, which displays priceless treasures of art. For the highlight of their programme at Alappuzha, 12 "chundan vallams" (snake boats) with up to 100 rowers were selected from among 15 boats, which were paid Rs 25,000 each - a standard charge for participation in the annual Nehru Trophy race. They included big names in the boat race like Alappad Chundan, Aayaparambu Pandi, Chambakulam, Ambedkar and Jawahar Thayankari. The "exhibition boat race" was organised by the Bharat Tourist Service Society in Alappuzha for the tour operators Wentours and the Taj Group of Hotels, who together arranged the millionaires' tour. Tour operators are hopeful that such made-to-order cultural capsules could attract more high-spending tourists instead of the money conscious back-packers. If the mega-rich tourists from abroad are convinced that their specific needs could be met promptly, they would spread the word that Kerala has an identity of its own without being tied up with any other tourist destination, tour operators say. But not all are happy with this. "Now that the first made-to-order tourism package show has turned a big draw, more such teams are likely to arrive in Kerala in search of backwater nirvana," commented the English national daily, The Hindu. "But one question is: would it not demean and debase Vallamkali (boat race), an important feature of Malayalis' cultural identity? There are already complaints that the half-an-hour Kathakali (a unique Kerala art form) being staged in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram daily to entertain foreign tourists have debased another cultural identity of Kerala." Tourism industry sources say that there has been a remarkable increase in the number of foreigners visiting the state after mid-December as some operators have diverted their tourists to southern India from the northern areas, which are seen to be more violence-prone during the run-up to the general election. Tourist traffic to Kerala had dwindled considerably last year. With the diversion of tourists from their favourite Delhi-Agra-Jaipur triangle, hotel occupancy in the state has shot up. The occupancy rate in the five-star Taj Malabar hotel in Kochi has now reached 80 per cent, according to Taj Group of Hotels General Manager P.K. Mohankumar. He hopes that 100 per cent occupancy could be reached soon. The current season runs up to April. There are no official figures that would give one a clear idea about how well the industry has been faring of late. The last year for which statistics are available is 1 9 9 6 . Over 150,000 foreign tourists and thrice the number of domestic tourists visited the state that year, according to official sources. Disputing the figure, the Kerala Association of Travel Agents says that not even half the number turned up during the year. --India Abroad News Service (Credit Mandatory)
