By IANS,
Mumbai : To tap the commercial and tourism potential of Maharashtra, Kerala’s grand shopping festival campaign will tour in Mumbai Monday, an official said.
As part of the national drive, flagged off from Delhi Nov 25, the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF) campaign will tour Maharashtra Monday, after making stop-overs in places like Jaipur in Rajasthan, Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
The campaign, aimed at driving in more tourists to Kerala for the Christmas-New Year vacation, will move to threec southern state capitals Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore before culminating at Kannur in Kerala where the 48-day mega fiesta begins Dec 15.
“Maharashtra has been a key market for us always. Now we want to further tap into the potentials with a vigorous campaign to woo not just the tourists, but also the marketers and manufacturers of consumer goods,” said Kerala Tourism Minister A.P. Anil Kumar.
Shopping is pitched as the latest addition to Kerala’s ever-growing list of niche tourism products ranging from backwaters to beaches, from hill stations to shrines.
Kerala tourism is now pitching the GKSF as the newest marketing tool to position the state as a shopping paradise for the domestic and international tourists.
The sixth edition of GKSF aims to transform Kerala into a ‘one single shopping mall’ with high-voltage campaigns, promotions, tantalizing discounts, incentives from the government, and gifts and gold worth millions of rupees.
Capping all these will be the mega draws with one kg of gold for one lucky winner and half a kg of gold each for two others.
“The average tourism spending in Kerala currently is five percent. Our target is to push this to 10-15 percent by positioning GKSF in a bigger way. The government is giving 100 percent VAT refund to the outside travellers,” Anil Kumar said.
The GKSF, which runs until January 31, 2013, will offer the visitors the chance to buy a plethora of souvenirs — high-quality, intricately designed gold jewellery, handloom textiles, coir products, indigenous wood and metal handicraft, genuine Ayurvedic products and exquisite tribal artifacts.