Boosting Kerala Tourism: Research Design Proposal Literature Review

This literature review examines the potential for increasing tourism in Kerala, India, focusing on attracting tourists, economic benefits, and reasons for the decline in the tourism industry. It discusses strategies such as enhancing website reach, responding to online reviews, promoting eco-tourism, making tourism multi-seasonal, investing in video marketing, enhancing chatbots for booking, and offering unique promotions. The review highlights the significant role of tourism in Kerala's economy and the impact of events like floods on the industry. It also touches on the importance of managing drainage systems, promoting through various channels, and encouraging customer feedback to improve the tourism sector and overall economy. Concluding that Kerala should improve its tourism sector by mitigating the risks and making improvements based on customer feedback.

How to increase the potential of
tourism in Kerala (southern state
in India), India
(Research Design Proposal)
(Part - 2)

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Literature Review Introduction.......................................................................................1
Chapter 2 Literature Review Main Body.........................................................................................1
What are the ways through which, tourists can get attracted towards a tourist destination...1
What could be considered as the benefits that Kerala economy can find of improving travel
and tourism industry...............................................................................................................2
Evaluate the main reason behind decline among tour and travel business industry of Kerala2
Chapter 3 Literature Review Conclusion.........................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................4

Chapter 1 Literature Review Introduction
Literature review is being considered as one of the crucial part of a research investigation.
Basically, what researcher does over here is take help from different sources which would be
anything from books, online websites, magazines, blogs where information is being provided by
the researcher on the topic on which investigator is conducting research(Padhi and Pati, 2017). In
present context, all the resources which are being utilised to support, the point of view which
has been given by them and this helps in pulling out the new information which was lacking in
previous investigation done on the chosen topic. Over here, researcher has chosen the topic, as
to improve travel and tourism business sector of Kerala and all of the resources that are being
utilised belongs to objectivesand the aim. There are mainly three objectives on which the
literature review section of the report is going to respond and these are ways through which an
individual Can attract tourists towards a destination even when it is having a negative image due
to a disaster or any other physical activity like terrorist attack. It is also going to cover benefits
that economy of Kerala can get from travel and tourism sector and lastly it will put light upon
the specific reasons which impacted negatively upon tour and travel business organisations of the
sector within Kerala which is a part of South India.
Chapter 2 Literature Review Main Body
What are the ways through which, tourists can get attracted towards a tourist destination
A tourist destination is place which can be called as city or states that have some special
creativity which attract the tourists (Shiji, 2016). Travel and tourism generate revenue and help
in the development a popular country. The state which attracts most customers are Kerala. This
is the place which have a natural beauty of fort, pure plants of tea, beaches, backwater cruises
etc.
There many ways from which Kerala can attract the national as well as international tourists.
Give the website the global reach:
The Kerala government can customise their website for current as well as potential tourist
across the globe. Then interact with their customers through various ways of communication on
internet. The website can be added some advertisement regarding their innovative places at one
glance (Manoj, 2016).
Monitor and respond to online reviews:
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The website handlers should monitors the feedbacks given by the tourist who visited the
place. The website software team can take initiatives to resolve the problems if any occurred and
satisfy the tourists and reassure them that similar mistake won't repeat in future.
Eco-tourism/adventure travel:
The Kerala state government can convert there tourist places to more eco friendly tourist
which will attract them for more innovative eco-tourism as well as adventurous place to travel
and visit. Eco-tourism can be done through taking care of natural places and no use plastic bags
around the streets and make the place clean.
Make tourism multi seasonal:
From tourist point of view the analysis done suggest that Kerala is the state which is
known for beauty in rainy seasons, but the tourism department can make efforts to attract tourist
in other season as well by providing reasonable offers in their travel trip.
Invest in video marketing:
The Kerala government can take step for video marketing in tourism as this can be
beneficial ways to attract tourists which give clear crystal image of destination to the tourist
before visiting the place which results in smooth functioning of latter process to be conducted by
the operators.
Enhance chatbot for booking:
The Kerala's web portal designers can introduce chatbot to provide information to the
tourist who are interested in knowing about the place through texting conversation at a particular
time period. In real time, the texting features proves to be good way of communications which
attract most tourists across the globe.
Offer unique promotions:
Through websites as well as travel agents the Kerala government can promote offers that
are unique and different from their competitor's of different states. The offers should be within
the range of a tourist in national and international basis.
What could be considered as the benefits that Kerala economy can find of improving travel and
tourism industry
Travel and tourism play an important role in Kerala’s economy; which is a state of India and if it
is compared with other nations, India ranks 14th in the world in terms of its tourism sector's
contribution to the GDP. At time of publication, the World Travel and Tourism Council predicts
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India will sustain the fifth largest amount of growth in the tourism sector of any country.
Tourism can offer direct and indirect aid to a nation's economy. Direct benefits include economic
support for hotels, retail shops, transportation services, entertainment venues and attractions,
while indirect benefits include government spending on related infrastructure, plus the domestic
spending of Indians employed in the tourism sector.
The impact of tourism on the environment can have either beneficial or extremely detrimental
effects. When a lively tourism industry induces the government to invest in national parks and
preserves, the environment may benefit. The movement toward eco-tourism, or tourism based on
the appreciation and preservation of natural environments, improves the chances of benefit to the
environment on a small and large scale. In India, a visitor can find hotels, tour groups, resorts
and organized expeditions designed for eco-tourism. Practices may include efficient use of water
and electricity or the implementation of recycling programs. Indian eco-tourism groups include
Eco-Tourism Pioneers in Kerala (tourindiakerala.com) and Jungle Lodges and Resorts
(junglelodges.com), located in South India (Camilleri, 2016).
Evaluate the main reason behind decline among tour and travel business industry of Kerala
According to (Iqbal and Sami, 2016), Kerala is known as city of god and it is situated in
India. There are several places in Kerala that attracts people around the world to visit that place.
These includes Ayurveda, Beaches or Backwaters and Canals. Moreover there are other
attractive things like warm weather, waterfalls, hills stations, wildlife, flora and fauna, festivals,
etc. There is a strong tourism attraction n that state as there are various attractive monuments,
gallery, scenery, lakes, valleys, infrastructure available in that place. But on the other hand, there
are several reasons which have influenced the travel and tourism in Kerala. The main reason that
has affected tourism in Kerala is it's flood that occurred in August last year. This flood caused a
great loss to Kerala as around 300 people died and economy of that state got dis balanced. This
flood caused landslides and around 12% of Kerala's economy was reduced. There were several
tourists who have to cancel their trips to that place at that time. There was a huge loss to
hospitality business owners of that place because of the floods (Babu and Subramoniam, 2016).
There are several places in Kerala including Munnar, Thekkady, Alappuzaha, Kumarakoram
were restored immediately but on the other hand, there are some places like Palakkad and
Thrissur that are most attractive places of Kerala which are not restored yet. The tourism of
Kerala contributes to around ten percent of the it's gross domestic profit. There are around 15
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million people who are employed in the tourism industry. Due to the floods, these people are
affected badly and overall profit of state was reduced. Kerala has the world's largest bird
sculpture that is 200 feet long and 150 feet wide. It was not opened since floods occurred. The
other attractive tourist places like state of the art ropeway and eco- park with a virtual reality
museum are the most attractive places of Kerala but they are also destroyed in these floods.
The tour operators have suffered a lot in business because of loss of tourism attraction in
Kerala. Also this place has been suffering from several diseases that have affected Kerala people.
The government of Kerala has been taking certain initiatives for making this place as better as
before (Bagri and Kala, 2016). The other reasons for decline in Kerala tourism are the
development process and government support of Kerala towards tourism. The culture of people
of Kerala is not very friendly and moreover domestic tourism in that place is very low as people
do not know the national language of that country. They only speak their local language.
Moreover people of Kerala are not friendly and extrovert and it is not effective for people who
are visiting that place. The government of Kerala is not taking any initiatives for doing
development and growth in that state. As most of the people of Kerala are involved in travel and
tourism for their income, the country had a great loss in terms of employment. A minority of
visitors to India are not traveling to see the sights, but instead, come to India to undergo medical
treatments or operations. The relatively high quality of medical treatment in India, in comparison
with the country's low costs, make it a destination for many internationals who cannot afford the
medical costs in their own countries. Procedures such as heart surgeries, orthopedic procedures,
transplants, endoscopies, cosmetic surgeries and neuro surgeries are all common reasons for
medical tourism (Bhaidkar and Goswami, 2017).
Chapter 3 Literature Review Conclusion
Considering the information which has been provided above, it has been concluded that Kerala
a famous state of India required to manage its drainage system so that chances of flood in the
future can be reduced to minimal. Apart from this, it can be said that promotion with the help of
video advertisement, radio, television, social media and more are some of the channels that are
required for governmental agencies of this state so as to enhance the productivity and economical
conditions to be improvised of the countries’ travel and tourism sector. Along with this,
spreading awareness among National and international tourists related to the risk which they
could face on visiting the country. This will directly help improving GDP rate as the clients
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within the country for a particular state or City directly stay aware after issues that they can face.
On the other hand developing a strong social presence can also help a business state like Kerala
to improve the benefits that they can get from people who are sitting online. Encouraging
customers to leave feedbacks can also help Kerala tourism to make modifications as per the
requirements of both domestic and international tourists based on the services that they are
providing to them. With the help of this, it is may be possible that tourist might get start gaining
a a good experience from the next time whenever they visit to the same state. This will directly
help state in enhancing the growth rate of both tourism sector and the economy of the state, city
or a country.
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References
Books and Journals
Padhi, S. S. and Pati, R. K., 2017. Quantifying potential tourist behavior in choice of destination
using Google Trends. Tourism Management Perspectives. 24. pp.34-47.
Iqbal, B. A. and Sami, S., 2016. Global and India’s Tourism Scenario. Journal of Tourism and
Hospitality. 5(1). pp.1-3.
Babu, S. R. and Subramoniam, S., 2016. Tourism Management in Internet of things era. Journal
of Information Technology and Economic Development. 7(1). p.1.
Bagri, S. C. and Kala, D., 2016. Residents’ attitudes toward tourism development and impacts in
Koti-Kanasar, Indroli, Pattyur tourism circuit of Uttarakhand state, India.
Bhaidkar, A. and Goswami, A., 2017. Medical tourism in India and the Health policy of the NDA
government: An overview. Aweshkar Research Journal, 22(1).
Manoj, P. K., 2016. Impact of Rural Tourism on the Environment and Society: Evidence from
Kumbalangi in Kerala, India. International Journal. 4(2).
Shiji, O., 2016. Economic impact of tourism in India. International Journal of Social
Science, 5(1), p.35.
Camilleri, M.A., 2016. Responsible tourism that creates shared value among
stakeholders. Tourism Planning & Development, 13(2), pp.219-235.
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