Until about a month ago, selling Kerala as a destination for languid holidays and rejuvenating ayurvedic treatments required little effort. Tourists flocked to the state not just from various parts of the country but from several overseas locations. Most of the 10.92 lakh overseas tourists who visited Kerala last year came from the US, UK, Saudi Arabia, France and Germany. That apart, 146.73 lakh domestic tourists visited the State in 2017. This year, the State is set to experience a poor tourist season, given the devastation it suffered due to incessant rains and floods in August and the fear of outbreak of various diseases in its aftermath. But, the State needs to bring back tourists quickly even when its primary focus will be on rebuilding.

Tourism is an important contributor to the State’s economy and is estimated to account for about 10 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product and provides direct and indirect employment to millions. It got the State about ₹8,392.11 crore worth of foreign exchange and ₹33,383.68 crore in total revenue from tourism last year. Also thousands of households depend on earnings from tourist arrivals — either as employees or owners of hotels, resorts, restaurants, hospitals, ayurvedic centres, home-stays, house-boats, taxis and so on.

The return of tourists can have transformative effect on the lives of people. As people get busy with work and interact with tourists, much of their current sorrow and pessimism will ease. Yet, tourists are not going to rush to the State. Kerala has already kicked off an exercise to revive tourism but it would do better to direct tourists to specific parts of the State where the flood damage was relatively lower and to places where the infrastructure can be repaired quickly. It may also help if the State manages to attract business tourists, particularly get companies to hold their board meetings and offsites for employees.