Thiruvananthapuram: On World Tourism Day 2019, Kerala Tourism is officially the most popular tourism page on Facebook in South Asia with 3.5 million followers. It is also the fourth most popular in the world.
The 'likes' on Kerala Tourisms Facebook page tripled in the past two years, touching 3,481,216, eclipsing popular social media platforms of Tourism Malaysia that has 3.3 million, Visit Singapore 3.2 million and Amazing Thailand 2.6 million likes.
Driven by high-quality content and fascinating visuals, it was Kerala Tourism's 'Human by Nature' campaign that spread its popularity on social media.
The campaign video that came out after the devastating floods of 2018, focused on the diversity of the state and portrayed how a visit to Kerala is about more than its destinations – it is about the people.
Another campaign, 'Kerala Tales Video,' a series of 50-plus videos based on authentic stories from the state, garnered over 60 million views online.
"It gives me immense pleasure and a feeling of pride to note that Kerala Tourisms social media page has now become the second most followed in the whole of Asia after 'Visit Dubai'," Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said.
According to Tourism secretary Rani George, one of the contributory factors to the impressive growth on social media platform is a sound content strategy based on engagement data analysis.
"It has helped us to fine-tune our content for better reach and create specific content for audiences with specific interests," she observed.
Besides generating appealing content, efforts were made for posting vernacular updates in seven Indian languages to cater to the domestic audience, she said.
"Social media has helped us transcend geographies and connect with all segments of the population," she added.
According to Tourism Director P Bala Kiran, the aim is to become the best Facebook page in the world by 2021.
Last year, Kerala Tourism had overtaken Jammu & Kashmir and Gujarat Tourisms Facebook page and secured first spot in the ranking based on total engagement with tourists that included reactions, shares, and comments on the page.
It was in August 2014 that it had crossed the one million mark. Kerala Tourism also has an active presence on Twitter (1.8 million) and Instagram (225K).
Internationally, now only three countries Australia with 8.3 million, Go USA with 6.7 million, and Visit Dubai with 6.7 likes are ahead of Kerala.
When compared with the portals of other tourism departments in the country, Kerala retains its number one position by a huge margin.
It is followed by Gujarat (1,336,836 likes), Madhya Pradesh (1,198,165), Rajasthan (588,453), Uttarakhand (494,992) and Odisha (238,143).
(With inputs from PTI)
