Kerala Tourism woos British Parliamentarians

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 17: The beauty of Kerala was presented to British MPs by state Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson at a special meeting held in the British Parliament complex earlier this week, an official release said on Friday. Thomson, who returned to the state capital after the presentation on Sunday, said it was an honour to address the British lawmakers.

“The MPs evinced great interest in Kerala and admired our top status on the global tourism map. We wanted to directly address the British parliamentarians and tell them why the United Kingdom is the biggest tourism market for Kerala in the world,” he said in a press release issued here,.

Thomson and a team from Kerala were in the British capital to take part in the ‘Mayor of London’ event to showcase ‘God’s Own Country’ to a British audience. Two years ago, the British royal couple, Prince Charles and wife Camilla Parker Bowles, had visited Kerala, watching Kathakali in Kochi and celebrating his 65th birthday at the backwaters resort of Kumarakom.

Among other prominent British visitors to Kerala include the Beatles legend Sir Paul Mcartney, a few years back.
Last year, Kerala had received 151,497 travellers from Britain and the presentation by Kerala Tourism to the MPs assumes significance because of the many Indian-origin politicians elected to the House of Commons.

The meeting, held in a Parliament conference hall, was also attended by several prominent members of the large Indian diaspora in Britain. This presentation came at a time when Kerala Tourism will take part in the WTM, London, the leading travel and tourism fair in the world attended last year by more than 50,000 participants and 5,000 exhibitors from 186 countries. The WTM 2015 will be held during November 2-5.