Kerala today flagged off an intensive national campaign to
woo tourists from across the country to the forthcoming Grand Kerala Shopping
Festival (GKSF), a spring-board event to catapult the State as an international
shopping destination.
The colourful campaign, which will travel to eight major
cities in the run-up to the mega fiesta, was flagged off from the Kerala House
in New Delhi by Hon’ble Union Minister
of Overseas Indian Affairs, Shri Vayalar Ravi, in the presence of a host of dignitaries in a festive atmosphere.
The campaign vehicle, heralding the advent of God’s Own
Country onto the global shopping calendar, will have stopovers at Jaipur,
Ahmedabad, Indore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore before culminating
at Kannur in Kerala where the 48-day mega fiesta will get off on December 15.
The South Indian Bank-GKSF, already billed as the biggest
fiesta of the kind in Asia, aims to
transform entire Kerala into ‘one single shopping mall’ with high voltage
campaigns, promotions, tantalizing discounts, incentives from the government,
and gifts and gold worth millions of rupees, coinciding with the peak tourism and pilgrim season.
Among the vast number of dignitaries and leaders present at
the flag-off function in New Delhi today were
Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent charge) for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Shri K V Thomas, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for HRD Shri Shashi Tharoor,
Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Labour, Shri Kodikunnil Suresh and Hon’ble
Kerala Tourism Minister Shri A P Anil Kumar.
The road-shows, supported by Kunnath Pharma, are being
organized in association with the Kerala associations and South Indian Bank
(SIB), the title sponsors of the event. MPs Shri P C Chacko, Shri P T Thomas,
Shri K P Dhanapalan, Shri N Peethambara
Kurup, Shri Anto Antony, Kerala House Resident Commissioner Shri Bishwanath Sinha, GKSF Director Shri U V Jose,
and GM (Delhi) region of SIB Shri T J Raphael were also present.
Shri Anil Kumar said the road-show is part of our attempts
to make GKSF more popular, wider and bigger by going to the major domestic
tourism markets.“Happening during our peak tourism season, the GKSF will aim to
tap the purchasing capacity of the tourists flocking to the State,” he said,
while addressing the media.
“The average tourism spending in Kerala is currently five
per cent. Our target is to push this to 10-15 per cent by positioning GKSF in a
bigger way. The Government is giving 100% VAT refund to the outside travellers,”
he added.
Pitching shopping 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 is offering a treasure trove of gifts and
prizes for the visitors during this Christmas-New Year season. Besides there will be scratch-and-win prizes offering
gold, GKSF merchandise, sponsored vouchers, daily prizes through SMS and weekly draws.
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. Sponsored high-value gifts worth Rs 10,00,000
for five people will add further glitter to the draws.
“One of the highlights of GKSF Season 6, that will continue
till January 31, 2013, is a majestic Global Village. It will be set up over 30
acres of land at Lulu Convention Centre premises in
Bolgatty Island, off the coast of Kerala’s commercial capital Kochi,” the Minister
said.
“Countries like Thailand, China, UAE and Malaysia have
already confirmed the participation. We are in talk with more countries,” he
added. Shri Jose said the Global Village, which is set to be open to the public
for 15 days from December 22, will be a miniature representation of the
richness and diversity of the world.
“The participating nations will have their space of their
own to showcase their cultures, traditions and crafts,” he added. “States like
West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have confirmed.
We are also trying to rope in more States,” he added.
The annual fest, held under the aegis of the Government in
collaboration with trade bodies, is the only one of its kind in the country to
evolve a new marketing season at such a
scale. Traditionally, Kerala has had only one marketing season —Onam. But over
the past years, GKSF has emerged as its second-biggest marketing season,
drawing in millions of customers and sending sales spiraling.
The shopping festival is conducted by Kerala’s Tourism
Department in association with the Industries & Commerce Department, Finance
Department and Local Self Government Departments.
