Kerala!

My plane was on its descent to Kochi airport when it hit me. No, not a bird hit but a realization. I was going back to Kerala after a gap of almost twelve long years. A state I had visited more than a handful of times in the mid 90’s.

Looking through the window, this time I could see tall buildings, wider roads and much more traffic than I had ever seen in the city. But what amazed me was the lush greenery the city had maintained; even enhanced.

Getting off the plane that early morning and walking towards the terminal in a refreshingly cool 19 degree temperature was a surreal experience. Surrounded by greenery, a railway track at the end of the runway with an express train chugging along it and watching the airport built in typical Kerala style – which in itself was built by a Private-Public partnership – was just plain unreal.

If all that didn’t mesmerize me enough, the drive to the city certainly did. Yes, the city had grown but seemed it hadn’t. The urban city seemed to maintain its rural character and rustic charm. Rivers meandering through the city, well-maintained banks and boardwalks, a green canopy wherever you saw….the city was testimony to the successful marketing of Kerala as a terrific tourism destination.

Kerala is a classic marketing case study on the power of using marketing to promote a piece of geography as a tourist destination. Here, sample a few facts that prove what well-organized tourism and well-planned marketing could do to country and its people - something Kerala has been able to perfectly plan and professionally pan out.

Kerala is the fastest growing tourist destination in the country with over 4 lakh international and 64 lakh domestic tourist arrivals every year.

The tourism sector alone accounts for more than Rs.1,000 crore investment every single year and provides employment to more than a million Mallus!

The state generates close to Rs.13,000 revenues from tourist arrivals every year. (A figure Tamil Nadu government is able to generate by only selling liquour!)

Foreign exchange earnings of the state amount to around Rs. 1,550 crores a year.

No wonder National Geographic Traveler magazine rates Kerala ‘one of the ten paradises on earth’ and ’50 places of a lifetime’!

The same evening, on the way back, I asked my car driver to take a different route to the airport than the one he had taken in the morning. Not that I had expected to see anything different. It was still the same: greenery, canals, streams, tons of foreigners and thousands of tourists infesting the city like ants would sugar!

I was still pondering over all this as I got on to my flight; amazed how a state could not only market itself better but also get geared to its marketing push and live up to the promise offered to its customers.

As the plane took off and Kochi became nothing but thousands of bulbs and lingering lights through the window, I just leaned back and realized: here is one of the few brands that could actually live up to its baseline…

God’s own country!