Kottayam: The Kerala tourism department, which puts out only annual figures of tourist arrivals, has broken with tradition and has for the first time put out quarter one results. The reason is obvious: the Q1 results alone will look encouraging this year. After that, the figures will reflect the damage the Nipah outbreak, and to a minor extent the Ockhi cyclone, have inflicted on the sector.
The Q1 has shown a healthy 12 per cent growth in foreign tourists and nearly 20 per cent growth in domestic tourists. The department knows that growth in the remaining period, especially after the Nipah outbreak and the spate of cancellations across the state, will be nothing to tom-tom about. By making public the Q1 results, the department is also trying to absolve itself of blame for an inevitable fall in arrivals.
Capital fall
However, even the deceptively promising Q1 results have thrown up a disturbing trend. Foreign tourists, it seems, are gradually abandoning Thiruvananthapuram, the state's marquee tourism district. That the English had deserted Kovalam is old story. “Some number-crunching has revealed that Russians are gradually disowning Varkala,” said tourism department's research officer C G Rajesh. It is widely perceived that Russians patronise Varkala the way the English had cared for Kovalam till the early 2000s.
The Q1 numbers are proof of the betrayal. Foreign tourist arrivals to Thiruvananthapuram (Kovalam and Varkala combined) have shown negative growth (minus 4.5 per cent). Never before had the tourism growth arrow missiled underground for Thiruvananthapuram. “In the case of Kovalam, the fatigue factor had set in at least five years before. The sudden indifference of Russians towards Varkala is a recent phenomenon,” Rajesh said.
The foreigners' confidence in the state's southern coastal destinations, it seems, was blown away by the Ockhi cyclone that swept the Kerala coast late November last year. “The fall in arrivals was evident from December last, right after Ockhi struck,” the research officer said. The usual surge of foreign tourists in the middle of December and early January was not witnessed this time.
Kovalam's and Varkala's loss, it seems, is Munnar's gain. There has been a 60 per cent increase in foreign tourist arrivals to Idukki district. “Within Idukki we have found that tourists gravitate towards Munnar than Thekkady,” Rajesh said. The condition of the state's major highway, too, seem to have contributed to the waning interest. “Earlier, the typical long-haul tourist who landed in Kochi used to take the Kochi-Munnar-Alappuzha-Kumarakom-Kovalam route. Now, the route has been shortened to the Kochi-Munnar-Kumarakom stretch,” said Abraham George, the managing director of Intersight Tours and Travels, a leading inbound tour operator. Reason: The Alleppey-Kovalam stretch is a nightmare.
However, despite the dramatic downslide, Thiruvananthapuram still attracts the second largest number of foreign tourists to the state after Ernakulam. Also, it is only foreign tourists who have developed fatigue for the capital's tourism spots. Domestic tourist arrivals to Thiruvananthapuram during the first quarter has shown a commendable growth of 24 per cent. Again, the capital district is only second behind Ernakulam in luring domestic tourists. Ernakulam has clocked a solid growth in both domestic (12 pre cent) and foreign (13 per cent) tourist arrivals.
Nipah havoc and loss of Arab Spring
The encouraging Q1 trends have been decimated by the Nipah outbreak. “Cancellations touched 40 per cent in even southern destinations. And there has been virtually nil enquiries for July either,” George, a former president of Kerala Travel Mart, said. “Our estimate is that the sector has suffered a loss of at least 300 crore in June,” he added.
It is also evident that the business during the July-August period, known in industry circles as the arab Spring, has been wiped off. This period is named after the Arab awakening for democracy because it is during these two months that high-spending Arabs flock to the state. “Now we've to wait till October, when a new tourism season begins, to see a turnaround,” George said.
Thanks to Nipah, Kozhikode and Wayanad, which had shown tremendous increase in tourism footfalls in Q1, will lose out in the following months. However, top tourism officials feel that the Nipah scare has blown over. On June 6, the state health and family welfare department had issued an advisory declaring Kerala to be safe to travel.
