The tourism department of Kerala is promoting this southern state as a destination for business conventions with houseboats being projected as an ideal site for such meetings. Banking on its scenic beauty and moderate weather, the department is wooing corporates to visit the state for board meetings and seminars.

"Apart the conventional meeting centres which the private sector is being encouraged to build, the houseboats in backwaters also have a capacity to accommodate as much as 100 persons, and can serve as a site for business meets," said the state's deputy director (tourism development) Suresh Kumar. He was in Nagpur as part of the state's campaign to woo tourists. A meeting was held with local tour operators on Thursday.

Kumar said the department is also exploring business potential in smaller cities of the country from where this state has not been drawing enough tourists so far.