An elephant and its calf graze on grass in Mattupetty, a famous hill town in Idukki district of Kerala. (Source: Kerala Tourism/Facebook) An elephant and its calf graze on grass in Mattupetty, a famous hill town in Idukki district of Kerala. (Source: Kerala Tourism/Facebook)

In a significant boost to tourism in the state, Kerala recorded the highest growth rate in tourist footfalls in 24 years attracting around 1.96 crore domestic and foreign visitors in 2019. These numbers are encouraging for the state that is on a recovery path after back-to-back flooding.

Registering a growth of 17.2 per cent, the total tourist arrivals touched over 1.95 crore which included 1.83 crore domestic visitors and 11.89 lakh guests from abroad, a press release said, adding that the total earnings from tourism stood at Rs 45,010.69 crore.

In 2018, the number of tourists visiting Kerala was 1.67 crore (domestic tourists 1.56 crore and foreign tourists 10.96 lakh).

“We have bounced back with great vigour after suffering unprecedented floods and torrential rains for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. This is the highest growth rate since 1996. Our figures show that there was a very significant increase in the footfalls from May 2019 and it prevailed till the end of the year,” an elated Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said.

“We are optimistic about sustaining the growth momentum this year also but it will depend on how quickly the world finds a solution to the problem of Coronavirus outbreak,” he added.

Of the 14 districts, Ernakulam attracted the largest number of tourists (45,82,366), followed by Thiruvananthapuram (33,48,618), Thrissur (25,99,248) and Idukki (18,95,422).

In terms of statistics, Kerala registered an increase of 27.8 lakh domestic tourists as compared to the previous year.

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