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This is the first time that Kerala participated in this annual fair that takes place in January every year at Vakantiebeurs in Utrecht. The fair witnessed a lot of enquiries from tourists who wished to make their trip to Kerala in 2018-19.

According to Tourism Minister, Shri Kadakampalli Surendran, Netherlands ranks 11 among the foreign tourists who make it to Kerala every year.

It has been recorded that in the year 2015, around 22,276 Dutch nationals visited Kerala. This is a 40 percent increase when compared to the tourist visits made in 2010. In the Dutch tourism industry it is observed that north India is more known to the Dutch than the south.

The Kerala pavilion at the fair was designed relating to the theme – ‘Slow Down in God’s Own Country’. The pavilion encapsulated the beauty of Kerala by focusing on its backwaters, villages and its Ayurveda treatments.

According to Tourism Principal Secretary, Dr. V Venu, Dutch people are very much interested in gathering information about new places to travel and so the participation of Kerala at the fair is expected to increase the flow of tourists to the state.

Dr. Venu said that the number of enquiries about Kerala at the fair will increase the visits of tourists to Kerala in the coming years.

Kerala Tourism Director, Shri UV Jose said that tours are planned by the department for key tour operators of Netherlands as well as for Dutch media persons to make them aware of the importance of Kerala. Along with this, a short write-up in Dutch language about Kerala was handed over to tourists.

Also, the direct flights conducted by Jet Airways to Amsterdam from Mumbai and Delhi will help in the fruitful functioning of Kerala Tourism.

Jet Airways also plans to conduct direct flights to Amsterdam from any one south Indian state and this will again help the Kerala Tourism industry immensely. Among other dignitaries that visited the Kerala Pavilion at the fair are the Indian representative at Netehrlands, Shri G S Mukul and Utrecht Mayor, JHC Van Seen. Both of them promised to provide all support to help promote Kerala tourism in Netherlands.

According to data collected at the end of the fair, Vakantiebeurs 2017 witnessed 1,08,779 visitors. It was calculated that 64% of the visitors came to the fair to collect information regarding vacation tours that are yet to be booked while 54% visitors participated in the fair to collect information regarding new tourists locales.

The Kerala tourism pavilion at the fair was around 18 sq. ft in size. The stall also represented Kumarakom Lake resort, Pioneer Personalized Holidays and Spice Land Holidays.

The Kerala team at the fair was led by Kerala Tourism Marketing Deputy Director, Shri Anil VS.

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