Kerala has not shown any interest in casinos to promote tourism as it wants to continue promoting “value-based tourism.”
Addressing presspersons here on a tourism promotion drive, Muraleedharan P, Tourism Information Officer of Kerala Tourism, on Thursday ruled out the State venturing into casino tourism.
“Ours is a value-based tourism, full of culture and such aspects of rich heritage of the State. We also promote honeymoon tourism and the like and have successfully managed to attract close to 10 per cent growth in tourist arrivals annually,” said Muraleedharan.
In case of foreign tourist arrivals, Kerala got 9.3 lakh tourists last year registering a 7.7 per cent growth.
In reply to a question, Muraleedharan said that the ban on liquor has not affected Kerala tourism as it switched on to cultural tourism and many other attractions like water sports, sea planes, backwater destinations, religious and cultural tourism have been promoted on a bigger scale.
During 2015-16, Kerala has come out with a “Visit Kerala year” with liberal discounts. .
In the international market, Kerala tourism is presently focusing on China and the US, he said. In reply to a question, Muraleedharan said fishermen in Kerala had definitely raised concerns when the government decided to introduce sea planes. However, their concerns were resolved by discussions.
Kerala Seaplane is a commercial service promoted by Kerala Tourism with base stations being the three airports of Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.