Kerala Tourism Board - Case Study Example

Kerala tourism board The gods own country Introduction to the casestudy Kerala is a south Indian state along the Malabar coast.Kerela is a state with a distinctive culture, hospitable people, backwaters, wildlife, heritage, Ayurveda treatment, world class accommodation, you name the component of tourism, and Kerala has it. Kerala is a state with immense tourism potential .It was rated as one of the top ten tourism destinations in the world. The above said fact reveals the significance of Kerala as a part of tourism destination in India. The evolution of a state, with communism as a political drive in the past, to a state with a unique brand reveals the Kerala tourism board perseverance towards achieving excellence. India, was a tourism destination well known for taj mahal, fatehpur sakri of agra, the Rajasthan palaces as these attractions were maintained to partially towards enthralling the tourist who comes to India. Tourists started searching for something different other than this conventional heritage destinations and Kerala tourism board has shown an alternative for this cause with their vibrant features showcasing Kerala in par with Bali of Indonesia. Swot analysis Strengths The preservation of the culture and heritage of the state is main factor which drove Kerala distinctive to the other destinations in the world. The marketing strategy adopted. The industry support. Kerala is state with maximum literacy rate in India1. Social indicators matching with most countries of the world. Active political support Industry supportive tourism policies Conservation of the environment. 1 "We placed less emphasis on comfort, more on environment, experiencing local culture, cuisine, cuisine, history and the way of life of local people" says Jose Dominic ,M.D ,KTDC .The statement was an applied absolutely in practical and due to this uniqueness it was placed at a distinctive level in the tourism map of the world. Taj group of hotels, the "CGH earth2" was instrumental in giving tourism in Kerala a corporate look. It mobilized the business travelers to choose Kerala as a viable destination for both business and leisure. Thus taj group of hotels played in promoting tourism in Kerala .The stark communications pvt ltd; a thiruvananthapuram based communication agency was successful in promoting Kerala as an important tourist destination. The stark communications adopted a variety of marketing mix and actively projected Kerala in various international tourism fairs and campaigns. 2Weakness Red tapism and bureaucracy. Lack Integration between various government departments. Lack of adequate infrastructure. Lack of night life. Beverage costs are high. Lack of proper air connectivity. Lack of proper waste management systems. Lack of professional expertise High service charges. Lack of good shopping facilities at tourist attractions. Lack of train connectivity. India being a democratic country, the bureaucracy existed in every part of the governance in most of the states. The developments initiation and implementation is an uphill task the file has to fallow a long hierarchy in various departments. By the time the project initiates the investments costs rises. The service charges on various facilities like river cruises, the accommodation were high. There is no adequate connectivity through train routes as the train route is concentrated along the major cities but not to the tourist destinations in specific. Night life can be seen in five stat hotels only in selected destinations, as this option was not provided due it relevance to eruption of violence at night time .Kerala is not well connected through air route, international tourists has to land at the metro cities like Chennai ,Mumbai ,Delhi. The excise duties are very enough than the other neighboring states Opportunities Heritage tourism: Vast cultural heritage, palakkad agraharams3, koodiyatam dance are given world heritage world heritage status and these forms can be a part of the cultural exhibit in promoting tourism. Eco tourism: has a huge potential pertaining to its vast forest lands, developing projects like the one in wayanad district. Pilgrimage tourism: The district of sabarimala should be developed with necessary infrastructural requirements like road towards the temple, food facilities, lodges near the shrine. Medical tourism: Kerala, best known for its ayurevadic rejenovation treatments has an immense growth potential, provided with promoting it with proper marketing facilities. 3 Threats Frequent strikes and hartals. The frequent strikes may result in political disorder and depletion in law and order, which may create a fear factor in tourist attitude. Rapid tourism growth may lead to pollution. Tourism activities increases the pollution, as a result of environmental degradation the tourist attraction may loose its charm after few years. The development of tourism related activities in the fragile areas of the forest land can damage the eco system and the hinder the destination growth. The tourism generated wastes near delicate eco systems areas can pause a question to the flora and fauna of that region like the beaches (kovalam, kochi), the mangroves (the allepey backwaters mangroves covering hundreds of kilometers. Tourism in India is evolving as a major economic source. The incredible India campaign was initiated was a success in the recent times as there was increase in the tourists arrival in India to 3.4 million. Though there contribution of the tourist flow was less than most of the south East Asian tourism destinations the tourist flow is gradually increasing. The government has initiated a series of development activities .Kerala and Rajasthan were the prime destinations in India for the past fifteen years. Kerala and Rajasthan were the moved forward in promotion of tourism in a distinctive methodologies. Kerala has unique features of its own in various aspects; the prime resources are the people as more than 90%were literate. Kerala has high social index at par with the developing countries. The three main resources: The manpower Time Money Manpower: The above fact reveals that basic education is substantially provided, however a state where tourism is the main economic driver, the professionalism should be inducted in tourism services by educating the employees in tourism related sectors like, hotel management, destination management etc Department of Tourism is arranging many programmes as part of the awareness campaign like training of taxi drivers, tourist polices etc, conducting workshops, seminars and giving advertisements. The people should be made aware of the social consciousness they should adopt when an alien is visiting to their destination expecting a different experience altogether. Implementing of single window system for approval of project .The time between project initiation and implementation should be optimum. The reduction in adopting the new system results in drawing the desired features framed to the prevailing situations. Time management will result in the proper flow of funds into the development project and avoids the unusual rise in the overhead costs. The flow of allocated funding should not be hindered with the external reasons what so ever. Smooth flow of resources will result in the precise execution of the projects. Market penetration According to the Ansoff's market, market our existing products to our existing customers. This means increasing our revenue without excess investment going into exploring the new customer base .The domestic tourism should be encouraged and the repeated tourists who visit the tourist destination in Kerala should be served to retain him and make him stay longer than his original schedule .The promotional activities should be more aggressive in the potential customer base in countries like U.S and Europe, who are the prime customers for the tourism in Kerala. As the internet made whole world into a 'global village' tourist destinations became easily reachable. The internet media should be used as a distribution channel in the integration of websites related to tourism, into a unified resource bank will depressurize the tourist search for the service availability and allow him to choose from numerous number of permutations available in the internet.. The promotional activities should be done in various tourism fairs and conventions travel marts showcasing the glory of Kerala Innovation Tourism product should feature some kind of uniqueness in offering to the potential tourist. Kerala imbibes itself varied components like the backwaters of the allepey, the wildlife sanctuaries, the beaches and the monuments, the ayurevadic massages. These products should be consistently renovated or upgraded to live up to the taste of the tourist. The new product concepts like the eco-tourism regions in places like wayanad, munnar should be developed into a leisure and rejenovation spots for the tourists including the eco-friendly services to the tourists. (source: www.wikipedia.com) The Kerala Backwaters, an interconnected system of brackish water lakes and river estuaries, lies behind the coast and runs virtually the length of the state.The river cruises should be offered with modern amenities suitable to the foreign tourists who have opted for the cruising in their tour itinerary. system to control the quality of the house boats such as quality of materials of construction, facilities including size of rooms, quality of furniture, quality of services or the safety & security measures offered by the house boat operators. The sewerage of these cruises should be dispensable without causing any bizarre scene near the cruise destinations. Kerala is the land of vibrant flora with thousands of plants with extraordinary medicinal values creating Ayurveda as an USP of Kerala Tourism has brought a substantial increase in the Ayurveda massage centers in and around all the major tourist destinations in the State. which ultimately led to a distinct image for Kerala as an ayurevadic treatment destination. The medical tourism depicting Ayurveda has already positioned well among the tourists, however the tourism department should create adequate facilities near these treatment hubs, develop leisure activities around these circuits to enhance the pleasure of the stay for the tourists. Kerala once upon time known as the land of spices has a large number of spice varieties which cannot be found in any part of the world. These spices can be a tourism product .Munnar, the tekkadi waterfalls, the salient valley of palakkad should be included in major tour itineraries. Diversification The department of tourism Kerala involved in developing new hotels and lodging facilities at the tourism destinations. Kerala tourism has running cruises in the backwaters. The tourism department has established Backwater Tourism Complexes at Thanneermukkom, Pallathuruthy, Kotharathode, Nedumudi and Vattakkayal along the banks of back waters. Kerala tourism development corporation willing to establish an airline was an first its kind initiative .The establishments of this new state owned airline will boost tourism activity in Kerala as the accessibility will be enhanced to the outer world. Recommendations According to WTTC report 85% of the tourists prefer traveling by either road or railway. Construction of express highways connecting the interior attractions would make the tourist journey comfort. Kerala has only two recognized international airports, (trivandrum.cochin) as most of the international tourists' arrivals to Kerala are through airports the connectivity should be frequent with the requisite infrastructure at the airport to process the arrival procedures. India itself is a huge potential market for the tourism promotion road shows travel fairs in the metro cities and semi metro cities will boost the domestic tourism activity. Enhancing the tourist spending at the tourist destination by increase in the stay with more added attractions suited to the tourist lifestyle. To bench mark the tourism activities, performance must be kept in check. Like the rating of the restaurants yearly depicting the performance of the hotel industry growth. Tourist arrivals survey near the airports (Trivandrum, Cochin) indicates the number of tourist arrivals. The revenue generated due to the tourism in the state. The total employment generated with the number of tourist arrivals. Survey of the most sought tourist destination in Kerala to done at the hotels or at the tourist attractions entry points to know the exact number of tourist flow to that attraction. Feedback forms of the tourists departing from the airports or by any other means, to consider their experience into accountability and to mould according to their suggestions. These indicators reveal the standard of the tourism attraction; the experience it has created in the tourist minds, the performance indicators explains the tourist's perceptions and expectations of the destination thus opens a new source to develop tourist friendly zones to enhance tourism. References http://icmr.icfai.org/casestudies/catalogue/Marketing/MKTG047.html www.kerala.gov.in http://www.newkerala.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala www.wttc.org/kerala/ Praxis, business line journal on management, may 2005 Read More