The Fabulous Tourism Business Landscape of Kerala

Since Kerala was on the International sea route and more importantly international spice route, the cuisine has seen the best of various cultures. The use of coconut and coconut milk, blending with vegetables and meat alike, is a rarity.

- Rajesh Nair

Once you look at Kerala seriously, you will definitely feel that God has been unfairly kind to the state. Bestowed with the topography of the heavens, it presents the best of hills, plains, rivers, lakes and the idyllic coastlines. The sylvan backwaters and the heady city mosaic are sketched with multiple shades of green. A colour, which presents the best of the environment, borders every picture ever clicked in Kerala. Brevity has been conscious for the style of the prose. But, the data is vast to fit tomes, when one looks at the ‘TOURISM’ in Kerala.

Kerala has been on the radar on many a decade. The natural beauty of the state has been lauded in many a publication including the National Geographic and the Coned Nast traveller. In a rapidly urbanising India , the rest of India also come into Kerala to savour a natural blend of the ‘green’ with the ‘concrete’ – where it has never been a war but a natural symbiotic growth. This is at a time where the ‘concrete’ seems to be clearly winning over ‘green’ in the rest of the world, why just India.

The business case for tourism is also vibrant and compelling. A dollar spend in a sector begets a dollar or two in building the economy in the region. The multiplier is quite high when it comes to manufacturing – roughly $ 4.5 for every $1 spend on the economy. But, for a tourism conducive locality like Kerala – the multiplier for tourism is more $6.7 for every dollar spend. This is because it is not just the employment and the ecosystem that tourism generates but the linkages it has around the entire business landscape! From a business standpoint, there is no debate!