Buoyed by an over 11 per cent increase in foreign tourist arrivals in 2011, which was a bad year for the global tourism industry given the bleak economic environment, Kerala is on a marketing blitz to attract more travellers from the Middle East and Down Under.

"We plan to spend over Rs 10 crore on mass media campaigns and road shows alone in the Middle East and Australia this year," said Kerala Tourism Director Rani George in Thiruvananthapuram recently.

This is significant, considering that the entire marketing budget for the Tourism Department of ''God''s Own Country'', which is how Kerala is known in global tourism circles, is only Rs 35 crore for the year.

The marketing blitz in the Middle East involves road shows and mass media campaigns involving television and the print media. The first leg of the campaign has already been kicked off in Saudi Arabia, with its three main cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhamam as the focal points of the road shows, George said.

In Australia, too, the department will be using the mass media and road show models to lure Australians to the country, she said, adding that the campaign will kick off in early February.
The other focal markets for 2012 will be Russia and China, she added.

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