Kerala Tourism has started looking at new markets like Australia and Scandinavia in the wake of major source markets in Europe facing an economic crisis.

The decision to aggressively market the destination and the unique tourism products of these regions had been taken in view of the increase in the inflow of tourists and reports that the countries had been ‘less affected' by the economic crisis as per a report in The Hindu by S. Anil Radhakrishnan.

The current source markets for Kerala as per the 2010 tourist arrival statistics are U.K. 23.7 per cent; the U.S. 10.8 per cent; France 9.8 per cent; and Germany 7.6 per cent.

Industry stakeholders had been seeking to explore new markets like the U.S., Australia, Russia, China, and Malaysia. Since Australia had been relatively less affected with economic crisis, the island nation had been identified as an emerging source market by Kerala Tourism.

State Tourism Secretary T.K. Manoj Kumar will lead a delegation from the State to the two ‘workshops' to be organised by Kerala Tourism on October 25 and 26 in Sydney and Melbourne. Tourism Director Rani George and 10 industry representatives will be part of the delegation.

The workshops would include interactive sessions with the travel trade industry and travel writers, screening of the film Your Moment is Waiting, and a presentation by Mr. Manoj Kumar. The State is organising such a drive in Australia after six years.

“Air connectivity from Australia is the main roadblock to bringing tourists to the State. Those planning to come to the State will have to take connection flights through Singapore and many budget carriers are offering lower fares,” according to Anish Kumar P.K., chief executive officer of Travel Planners, who is participating in the workshops. During 2010, the State attracted 36,854 tourists from Australia and this was 5.59 per cent of the total arrivals.

Minister for Tourism A.P. Anil Kumar will lead a delegation to the World Travel Mart scheduled to be held in London from November 7. Mr. Manoj Kumar, Kerala Tourism Planning Officer U.V. Jose will lead a delegation for the workshops planned in Scandinavian countries. As per the schedule, the workshops in Oslo will be on November 14, Copenhagen November 15, Helsinki November 16, and Stockholm on November 17.

In 2010, as many as 10,525 tourists arrived from Sweden (1.60 per cent of the total tourist arrivals in the State), Denmark 8,825 tourists (1.34 per cent), Finland 3,146 tourists (0.48 per cent), and Norway 2,583 tourists (0.39 per cent).

This is for the third successive year that Kerala Tourism is organising a drive in Scandinavian countries.