News about Kerala Tourism

Courtesy: NDTV News  

Kerala to become World Travel Bloggers' capital

Thiruvananthapuram:  Kerala Tourism has launched an online campaign to bring the world's best bloggers to the state for an on-the-road experience.

The 'Kerala Blog Express' will be a two-week-long road journey from the south to the north of the state on a branded luxury bus for which 25 bloggers from around the world will be selected for the road journey in an online voting on a website (www.keralablogexpress.com) created by Kerala Tourism.

The website, launched recently, has already received over 100,000 visits, with some top travel bloggers from India and abroad entering the race for the final selection.

The bus journey will begin on March 1, a Kerala Tourism release said in Thiruvananthapuram today.

Travel writers, photographers and bloggers who already have their own blogs are eligible to enter the selection. The registration for 'Kerala Blog Express' journey ended on January 10.

Profiles of participants are available on Kerala Blog Express website for voting by the general public.

The followers of the participants on social media like Twitter and Facebook are also eligible to vote.

The online voting will be completed on Jan 15 and bloggers with the highest votes will earn seats on Kerala Blog Express, following a final review by a judging panel of the tourism department.

"This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country to attract the blogger community for a first-hand experience of our land, its geography and culture," said Kerala Tourism Minister A P Anilkumar.

Entries had been received from as many as 80 countries, including US, UK, Poland, Spain, Germany, Canada and Indonesia.

Some of world's best-known travel bloggers like Venezuela-born Marcello Arrambide, whose Wandering Trader is one of the most popular travels blogs on the internet and Romanian Cezar Dumitru whose extensive travel experiences have been recorded on his Imperator Travel website are taking part.

Many writers participating in the race for the 25 seats on the Kerala Blog Express have featured in National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveller and Lonely Planet.

Kerala Blog Express will travel through destinations like Alappuzha, Kovalam, Varkala, Kumarakom, Thekkady, Munnar, Wayanad, Kochi and Bekal during the two-week journey.

The selected bloggers will also be able to participate in activities like boating in the backwaters, experience Ayurvedic treatment, and watch Kathakali performances, besides giving bath to the state's famous captive elephants.  Thiruvananthapuram:  Kerala Tourism has launched an online campaign to bring the world's best bloggers to the state for an on-the-road experience.

The 'Kerala Blog Express' will be a two-week-long road journey from the south to the north of the state on a branded luxury bus for which 25 bloggers from around the world will be selected for the road journey in an online voting on a website (www.keralablogexpress.com) created by Kerala Tourism.

The website, launched recently, has already received over 100,000 visits, with some top travel bloggers from India and abroad entering the race for the final selection.

The bus journey will begin on March 1, a Kerala Tourism release said in Thiruvananthapuram today.

Travel writers, photographers and bloggers who already have their own blogs are eligible to enter the selection. The registration for 'Kerala Blog Express' journey ended on January 10.

Profiles of participants are available on Kerala Blog Express website for voting by the general public.

The followers of the participants on social media like Twitter and Facebook are also eligible to vote.

The online voting will be completed on Jan 15 and bloggers with the highest votes will earn seats on Kerala Blog Express, following a final review by a judging panel of the tourism department.

"This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country to attract the blogger community for a first-hand experience of our land, its geography and culture," said Kerala Tourism Minister A P Anilkumar.

Entries had been received from as many as 80 countries, including US, UK, Poland, Spain, Germany, Canada and Indonesia.

Some of world's best-known travel bloggers like Venezuela-born Marcello Arrambide, whose Wandering Trader is one of the most popular travels blogs on the internet and Romanian Cezar Dumitru whose extensive travel experiences have been recorded on his Imperator Travel website are taking part.

Many writers participating in the race for the 25 seats on the Kerala Blog Express have featured in National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveller and Lonely Planet.

Kerala Blog Express will travel through destinations like Alappuzha, Kovalam, Varkala, Kumarakom, Thekkady, Munnar, Wayanad, Kochi and Bekal during the two-week journey.

The selected bloggers will also be able to participate in activities like boating in the backwaters, experience Ayurvedic treatment, and watch Kathakali performances, besides giving bath to the state's famous captive elephants.  Kerala Tourism has launched an online campaign to bring the world's best bloggers to the state for an on-the-road experience.

The 'Kerala Blog Express' will be a two-week-long road journey from the south to the north of the state on a branded luxury bus for which 25 bloggers from around the world will be selected for the road journey in an online voting on a website (www.keralablogexpress.com) created by Kerala Tourism.

The website, launched recently, has already received over 100,000 visits, with some top travel bloggers from India and abroad entering the race for the final selection.

The bus journey will begin on March 1, a Kerala Tourism release said in Thiruvananthapuram today.

Travel writers, photographers and bloggers who already have their own blogs are eligible to enter the selection. The registration for 'Kerala Blog Express' journey ended on January 10.

Profiles of participants are available on Kerala Blog Express website for voting by the general public.

The followers of the participants on social media like Twitter and Facebook are also eligible to vote.

The online voting will be completed on Jan 15 and bloggers with the highest votes will earn seats on Kerala Blog Express, following a final review by a judging panel of the tourism department.

"This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country to attract the blogger community for a first-hand experience of our land, its geography and culture," said Kerala Tourism Minister A P Anilkumar.

Entries had been received from as many as 80 countries, including US, UK, Poland, Spain, Germany, Canada and Indonesia.

Some of world's best-known travel bloggers like Venezuela-born Marcello Arrambide, whose Wandering Trader is one of the most popular travels blogs on the internet and Romanian Cezar Dumitru whose extensive travel experiences have been recorded on his Imperator Travel website are taking part.

Many writers participating in the race for the 25 seats on the Kerala Blog Express have featured in National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveller and Lonely Planet.

Kerala Blog Express will travel through destinations like Alappuzha, Kovalam, Varkala, Kumarakom, Thekkady, Munnar, Wayanad, Kochi and Bekal during the two-week journey.

The selected bloggers will also be able to participate in activities like boating in the backwaters, experience Ayurvedic treatment, and watch Kathakali performances, besides giving bath to the state's famous captive elephants. 

Kerala Tourism partners Facebook for promotion of its activities

Thiruvananthapuram:  Boosting its efforts to explore the potential of social media in the promotion of its activities, Kerala Tourism organised two workshops in the state this week in association with Facebook.

'Travel Goes Social' was designed as a special campaign for travel and tourism professionals which began on November 20 with Tourism Minister A P Anil Kumar inaugurating a day-long workshop at the state-owned Mascot Hotel in Thiruvananthapuram.

The second workshop was held in Kochi on November 21. The theme of the programme was 'Travel and Tourism: Leveraging Social Media and Information Technology.'

Two lectures on how to use Facebook in Travel Industry by Sachin Rao, Head of Small and Medium Business, Facebook (India), and Esme Lean, Facebook Advertising Specialist, were held as part of the programme, an official press release said.

Kerala named among top ten holiday destinations

hiruvananthapuram:  Travel guides publisher Lonely Planet has named Kerala among the world's 10 best destinations for taking the family on a holiday in 2014.

The Lonely Planet's award for the best family destination was bestowed on 'God's Own Country' at the World Travel Mart in London, the world's leading travel trade event attended by industry representatives from across the globe, a statement issued in Thiruvananthapuram said.

The World Travel Mart, which began on November 4, concluded on Thursday.

Kerala joined the likes of New York City, Denmark, Prague, Iceland, Italy and Hawaii in being described by the travel expert as a child-friendly destination ideal for the family.

"The intensity of travel in India could put you off taking a trip here with family, but Kerala is a family-friendly version, more laid back than other regions, greener, slower paced. There are also lots of national parks for elephant spotting, palm fringed beaches and boat trips along the lush canals of the backwaters," it said.

Kerala Tourism director S. Harikishore, who led the state delegation to the World Travel Mart, received the award from Lonely Planet.

Former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes was among the thousands who visited the Kerala pavilion at the World Travel Mart. The pavilion showcased Kerala as the Home of Ayurveda.

Rhodes, who retired from international cricket in 2003, is a brand ambassador for South African Tourism.

"With the British economy registering the fastest growth in the last three years in the previous quarter, the mood at the World Travel Mart hosted by London was upbeat," said Harikishore.

Britain is the most important market for Kerala. The state recorded nearly 1.5 lakh tourist arrivals last year.

"The World Travel Mart presented us with a significant opportunity to target higher growth figures for Kerala tourism as far as foreign tourist arrivals are concerned," he added.

The Kerala delegation included 12 co-exhibitors representing the hospitality industry of the state.
 

New medical township in Kerala beckons foreign health tourists

Kochi:  A medical township comprising nine super-speciality hospitals - offering the latest state-of-the-art technology to treat a host of diseases including cancer - is coming up in Kochi with an eye to promote Kerala as a top medical health tourism destination.

Aster Medcity, which is being built on what was a huge garbage dumpyard, is to start functioning by March 2014. D.M. Healthcare, a big name in healthcare in Gulf countries, is building the complex on 38 acres of land at Cheranallur in Kochi.

Phase I of the complex, being built at a cost of $150 million, would have on offer 540 beds across the nine hospitals, Harish Pillai, chief executive officer Aster Medcity, told IANS.

The Aster Medcity plans to add another 500 beds later in Phase II. The township will have residential quarters, hotels, a convention centre, cafetarias, guest rooms and later also a home for the elderly, said Pillai.

"We are aiming to attract foreign health tourists to Aster Medcity. We have the latest facilities, including minimally invasive treatment and diagnostic techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of various cancers and heart diseases," Pillai told IANS.

India gets 150,000 medical tourists every year, and it is expected to grow by 15 percent annually, he said.

Among the latest technology that Aster will boast of is the 'True Beam' that provides radiation treatment in a shorter time and minus most of the usual side-effects of current treatment, said Pillai. The 'True Beam' technology is a radio-surgery treatment in which high-energy X-rays are used to destroy tumours.

"Conventional therapy takes a very long time, but this system delivers concentrated radiation with pinpoint accuracy on the tumour," Pillai said.

"As it is a concentrated high-dose treatment, the process is over in a few minutes for patients," he added.

An added advantage of the new system is that it uses 25 percent lower X-ray dosage compared to conventional ones. This reduces greatly the radiation exposure for patients.

"The conventional radiation therapies are accompanied by various side-effects, but with True Beam the impact of radiation is greatly minimized and it also doesn't impact the normal tissues," Pillai said.

The medcity will also have cardiac cath labs or catheterization laboratories - diagnostic imaging equipment used to visualise the arteries of the heart to detect any abnormalities. The cath labs will have an added advanced technology , called 'clarity', to reduce the radiation levels for patients, doctors and lab technicians, said Pillai.

This has been introduced keeping safety and efficiency as the hospital's top priority, he said.

"You would be surprised to know that so far there has been no study of how many cardiologists in the country acquire cancer due to long exposure to radiation. So this is the reason the cardiac cath labs with option of 'clarity' are being introduced," Pillai said.

The 'clarity' cardiac cath lab reduces radiation exposure by almost 73 percent.

"This is the newest technology that is being introduced in India for the first time," he said.

Another new technology being introduced is the hybrid byplane cath lab that can convert the imaging and diagnostic device into an operation theatre for any emergency surgery.

"Besides cardio, this technology would be used in interventional neuro-radiology cases. We will be bringing experts trained overseas for using this technology," Pillai said.

The medical township also has a large artificial lake in the complex, which adds to the pleasing environment of the township.