Thiruvananthapuram: Beaches in Kerala will be reopened for public on November 1, coinciding with the Kerala Formation Day. This follows a long shutdown necessitated by the onslaught of COVID-19 from the first quarter of this year.
As part of the phase-wise unlock process following the COVID lockdown, the Government had decided to open tourism centres in Kerala in two parts. In the first phase the hill stations, adventure resorts and backwater tourism centres including houseboats were reopened on October 12 by strictly adhering to the standard operating protocols.
Beach tourism centres are set to commence activities in the second phase.
Kerala which is a major tourist destination in the country has found the going tough of late owing to natural calamities and lately, a pandemic. The state has decided to kick-start tourism activities step-by-step even as overseas visitors are unlikely to arrive soon owing to flight bans. With the opening up of the beaches in November following the recent launch of slew tourism projects in October, the tourism sector in Kerala is expected to get the much-needed fillip in the wake of the downturn in the sector owing to the COVID-19 curbs.
On October 26 notable tourism projects were inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
In his address, the CM had said, “When the state, the country and the world survive Covid, Kerala will once again become a tourist paradise. The launch of the 26 new projects will mark the revival of the tourism sector in Kerala in the post-Covid season. The pandemic came at a time when the tourism sector was thriving, overcoming many crises.
The tourism sector is estimated to have lost Rs 25,000 crores coupled with huge job losses. The government is implementing a number of new projects to boost and revive the tourism sector.”
These projects are spread across almost all the districts in Kerala, from the popular hill station Ponmudi in Thiruvananthapuram way up to the northernmost districts.
Some of the notable projects are Malamelpara tourism project, Kollam Beach and Thani Beach projects in Kollam district; the Green Tourism Complex in Pala in Kottayam district, the Aruvikuzhi Tourism Development Project in Idukki district; and the Malanad-North Malabar River Cruise Tourism Project and the Chingeri Hill Rock Adventure Tourism Project in Wayanad.
