TravTalk India Online Magazine
Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa, addressed the recent National Conference of State Tourism Ministers virtually and shared the success story of Kerala as a destination and ‘Incredible India’ as a campaign. Please do not copy the West and go back to your roots, he suggested states at the meeting.
Nisha Verma
Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa, began his address by recalling his assignment in Kerala. “Nobody had heard of Kerala as a tourism destination at that time. People used to go to Kashmir and Rajasthan. Very few tourists used to go to Kerala and that too only for Kovalam. When I took over as Secretary, Tourism, Kerala, it used to get just about 20 pounds a night and our challenge was to make it into a premier destination for upmarket clients and build it as a global brand,” he shared.
Kerala story
Kant shared that they did everything, which was an antithesis of tourism. “We decided not to copy the West and go back to the roots. We did several things, which promoted the unique strengths of Kerala. We stopped Kovalam beach because of encroachment and decided to revive it and develop new products. That’s how the beautiful backwater was developed as a tourism product. We brought back Ayurveda to the centre stage as an alternative medicine form. We brought back dances of Kerala like Theyyam, Kathakali and Mohiniattam to the mainstream. Tourism became the vehicle, which brought back culture of Kerala back as we brought back the traditional festivals of Kerala like Thrissur Pooram. We brought back the snake boat races of Kerala. We converted the poachers in Periyar into guides by paying them advance money for next five years. We promoted Kerala as a sustainable, green destination.”
Incredible India
After that, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee holidayed in Kerala, which was overseen by Kant; he was posted as Joint Secretary, Tourism, Government of India (GoI). “As soon as I landed, there were several crises in India. Our hotel occupancy was just 10 per cent. At the peak of that crisis, we launched the Incredible India campaign. The challenge was to build on India’s unique strength. We said that there are certain markets we’ll defend, certain markets we’ll invest and certain markets, we’ll seed. We loved our communication strategy, and we worked around the exclamation mark (!) in the campaign. This was when Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand had all stopped their marketing,” he said.
However, he insisted that tourism is not just about marketing. “You will not be able to get the results if your product is bad,” Kant said.
G20 Presidency
Speaking on why the states should step up for G20, Kant informed, “The Prime Minister has asked us to do G20 meetings in all the states and Union Territories (UTs). There are 200 events in 55 cities of India. Important thing is that every single visitor during G20 who comes to India is not coming for G20. We must send him back as a brand ambassador of India.”
Upfront clearances for PPP
He advised states to give all necessary clearances for PPP models to flourish. “Otherwise, people will run around for clearances only. What Lakshadweep did was the right thing,” he said.
