Kerala Tourism - masters in promoting God's Own Country

If I had to name one state in India that has marketed tourism brilliantly and
have taken the effort to think out of the box, it would without any doubt be Kerala.
The government organisation responsible for this is Kerala Tourism.

Kerala Tourism have been pioneers in marketing the most well-known asset of Kerala
- the scenic beauty of the state. Sun, sea, beaches, backwaters, hills etc etc - you name
it, Kerala has it. The only thing missing is snow. But then, if God gave Kerala that also,
it would be grossly unfair to the other states.

Thanks to Kerala Tourism, the term "God's Own Country" is famous the world over.
You could argue that it's not really a big deal selling a place that is blessed by nature.
I would have agreed with you, till a year or so ago, because Kerala does not really
need selling, given the beauty it posesses.

But, they won my admiration when they did something out of the ordinary - selling
the normally tourist-unfriendly monsoon season. Kerala is blessed with abundant
rainfall. While this is a good thing as far as meeting the water requirements of the
state goes, it is not really a good thing for tourism.

Tourists usually don't like roaming around wet or with umbrellas or raincoats while
they are on vacation. Rains would be the last thing they would like to have. But with
rains being a round-the-year phenomenon and atleast a couple or more months of
hardcore monsoons, too much was at stake, as far as loss in tourism revenues were
concerned.

That is when the bright guys at Kerala Tourism came up with the idea of selling the
monsoons itself. And what a brilliant execution it was. I would just let the picture do
the talking. Have a look at one of their promotional campaigns for monsoon tourism.
The text copy "Sometimes it takes water to kindle a fire" coupled with the apt picture
of a couple, would lure anyone to try out the romantic getaway promised by the state.




If you still harbour any doubts about their ability, do check out their brilliant website.
The way it is designed, the text that forms the site, the graphics/video/pictures used,
the language options provided for the foreign tourist etc make it stand out.

At times I am even surprised that Kerala Tourism is a government organisation.