Kerala drew huge attention from European travelers at the MATKA 2014

Kerala participated in the recently concluded travel event in Finland named MATKA 2014. Popularly known as “God’s own country”, Kerala was a huge hit in the MATKA Nordic Travel Fair 2014, held from January 16-19 at Helsinki.

Along with the tourism offers of Kerala, the destination was well exhibited to the 1100 exhibitors from 70 countries. The newly-introduced Tourist Visa-on-Arrival (T-VoA) facilities at the Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram airports, Kerala are now an attractive gateway to European travellers visiting India. “The participation at the fair is proving to be the right platform for Kerala Tourism to highlight the T-VoA facility to a wider audience at a global stage.

Suman Billa, Secretary, Kerala Tourism, said plans are afoot to tap the potential of the Scandinavian market by targeting the countries individually and collectively through such fairs and roadshows. “Finland is a highly prospective market for us. The tourist arrivals from Finland have doubled over the last five years to reach 5,160 in 2012,” he informed.

S Harikishore IAS, Director, Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala, led the Kerala delegation, which had representation from industry partners like Pioneer Personalized Holidays, Somatheeram Ayurveda Group, and CGH Earth. “The response was exciting and we definitely hope that this is converted into business in the coming years,” he stated.

Aladiyan Manickam, Indian Ambassador to Finland, who visited the Kerala stall, was all praises for the marketing initiatives by the state targeting Europe.

Kerala Tourism sees potential in the 11 countries that are offered the T-VoA, namely Japan, Singapore, Finland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia.