Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 5: Kerala Tourism was presented with the prestigious Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award in the ‘Marketing Campaign (State & city – Global)’ category, marking a sterling endorsement of the state’s sustained efforts to devise innovative initiatives to attract visitors.
Kerala Tourism Additional Director (General) S Prem Krishnan received the honour from PATA Chairman Mr Peter Semone at the PATA Travel Mart 2023, held at the International Exhibition Convention Centre (IECC), Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on Thursday.
Set up in 1984, the PATA Grand and Gold Awards recognise the finest contributions from the travel industry in the Asia- Pacific region with the winning projects consistently creating benchmarks for excellence and creativity.
Kerala Tourism’s award-winning campaign ‘Make up for lost time, pack up for Kerala’, conceptualized for an audience transitioning to normalcy during the post-COVID times, targeted domestic tourists. The campaign made a splash in all major media platforms, including print, radio, OOH, digital videos and banners (web portals), and social media channels.
Kerala Tourism Minister P A Mohamed Riyas said the prestigious PATA Gold Award comes as a high honour for Kerala Tourism, which has been making constant efforts to come up with catchy and facts-based marketing campaigns to woo back tourists in post-pandemic times.
“This well-planned market outreach has imparted a big thrust to the post-pandemic upsurge in domestic tourist arrivals in Kerala. Our campaign idea, ‘Make up for lost time, pack up for Kerala’, was simple and direct, yet quite innovative, eloquently conveying the sentiments of people during the transition to normalcy. It exhorted everyone to regain their fun and freedom in one of India’s best-known destinations,” Riyas added.
Tourism Secretary K Biju said the award is a sterling recognition of Kerala Tourism’s innovative campaign which proved to be a key factor in the massive surge in domestic tourist footfalls.
Tourism Director P B Nooh said it is significant this international honour affirmed the brilliance of our marketing campaigns at a time when Kerala Tourism is all set to scale new heights as prime destination for both domestic tourists and holiday-makers from all key markets around the world.
The state’s innovative campaign, ‘Make up for lost time, pack up for Kerala’, had signalled a major shift by targeting the young crowd, exhorting them to savour the beauty of Kerala in a natural setting, be it adventure or leisure. This was evident in a range of captivating videos on social media handles which included a young couple indulging in adventure activities, a girl draped in a Kerala sari careening through a village road on a skateboard, a group of young backpackers enjoying tea at a roadside stall, and a family enjoying the serenity of the hills.
Significantly, other winners of PATA awards this year include promoters of global destinations like the Hong Kong Tourism Board, Incheon Tourism Organization, Jeju Tourism Organization, Korea Tourism Organization, Nepal Tourism Board, Sabah Tourism Board, Taiwan Tourism Bureau, Tourism Authority of Thailand, and Tourism Fiji.
