After a lull in tourism owing to the floods of last year, God’s Own Country is now witnessing more incoming tourists, thanks to domestic arrivals. Tourist arrivals in Kerala shot up by 6.82% in the first quarter of 2019, as compared to the statistics recorded last year. The total number of tourist arrivals (both domestic and foreign) during January-March, was 46,12,937 as compared to 43,18,406 during the same period in 2018.

The number of domestic tourists arriving in the state was 41,90,468 as against the figures of 38,77,712 during the corresponding period in 2018, registering an increase of 8.07%. However, the arrival of foreign tourists suffered a dip of 4.14%.

“Last year’s floods were unprecedented in fury and devastation and it battered large swathes of the state, affecting its infrastructure that had a bearing on the tourism sector. There was rampant apprehension that Kerala’s tourism would take a long time to recover. But we were able to allay these apprehensions by swiftly putting in place an effective action plan to win back the confidence of tourists,” said Kadakampally Surendran, tourism minister, Kerala.

Ernakulam, with an increase of 108,169 domestic tourists, registered the highest growth among the 14 districts of the state, he said. The total number of domestic tourist arrivals in this district was pegged at 9,96,091 during January-March this year as against 8,87,922 in the corresponding period of 2018. The districts of Idukki, Alappuzha, Kannur and Kozhikode also registered decent growth during the period.