Kerala Tourism News

Kerala captivates world’s influential style magazine - Vogue

The captivating vistas and lifestyle of Kerala overwhelmed the publishers of Vogue. And the result!? Twenty dedicated pages featuring Kerala’s breathtaking landscapes as backdrops are featured in the June issue of the world’s leading style magazine – Vogue.

As part of Vogue’s ‘Indian Summer’ shoot, the female model of Vogue had the backwaters and paddy fields of Kerala in the backdrop for the pictures. The situations were selected as the most ideal settings for promoting this season’s white cotton designs.

Shot by well-known French photographer Mr. Patrick Demarchelier, the photo sessions attempted to bring out the exotic elements of warm, spice-infused colours in a laid back style. The photo shoot took place at some of the prime attractions of Kerala that included the iconic Chinese fishing nets, the popular combination of houseboat and backwater and with local women in sarees in a paddy field adding to the ethnic flavour. Local children too feature in the magazine’s space for Kerala. School children from St Michael’s HSS Vaikkom appear in a double spread, unveiling their own fashion signature with highlight on effortless dressing.

Sharing his thoughts on Vogue’s photo shoot in Kerala, the Secretary for Kerala Tourism, Dr. Venu V., said that Vogue’s effort has truly done justice to the beauty and majesty of the land. A fashion shoot in an exotic setting is of importance. It’s the same importance that travelers taking vacation photos feel chronicling themselves in a foreign place or chronicling themselves next to a celebrity, he added.

Vogue is considered the world's most important and influential style magazine, and is published in 21 countries. Vogue UK is published ten times a year and has a readership of 1 million.

The UK is Kerala’s largest source market with 141,147 tourist arrivals from the country in 2008. This is a 23.5% market share of total international arrivals to Kerala. 598,929 foreign tourists visited Kerala in 2008.

‘Festival Wiki’ a new online initiative of Kerala Tourism

Kerala is home to an array of festivals, happening in some part of the state, almost every day. It has been felt for some time that a credible online database of festivals held in Kerala should be prepared for the sake of travelers and locals as well. With Kerala Tourism now embarking on a mission to collect maximum details of festivals happening in Kerala, the realization of an exhaustive festival database would not take very long.

On the lines of Wikipedia, Kerala Tourism would have this online initiative tagged to its official website of Kerala Tourism. Those interested can access the domain created for Festival Wiki from this site and can upload videos, photographs and other details pertaining to festivals held in Kerala. Expressing his views on the new initiative, Director, Kerala Tourism, Mr. M. Sivasankar said that ‘Keralafestivals Wiki’ aims at catching the minute facets of Kerala celebrations. The attempt is to rope in the public to provide details, especially on generally unknown festivals or edit or add to festival information already posted on the site. All materials posted will be subject to clearance, he added.

The database currently being developed would be launched during the upcoming Onam festival, slated for September. Kerala Tourism with YouTube as its channel partner also has the advantage of having the videos uploaded in YouTube.

Wayanad puts on the garb of monsoon tourism

Splash 2009 of Wayanad Tourism Organization (WTO) was organized to invite the attention of travelers interested in experiencing monsoon in Wayanad. Programs of Splash 2009 were staged from July 3 to 11 at Chandragiri auditorium in Kalpetta and at outdoor venues. The show kicked-off with ‘Keraleeyam’ on July 3. All programs had the participation of renowned artistes. The show comprised musical evenings, dance, folk and traditional songs, magic show, archery, mini marathon, boat race and tug of war. Besides, there was also an exhibition featuring 30 odd stalls dealing with ethnic cuisine, handicrafts and other cultural signatures of Wayanad.