Kerala: An illusory Board to lure Russians

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: During the last five years, the state Tourism Department’s public relations wing was in an overdrive, bombarding the press with even the minor moves it had made in the domestic and international circuits. Now, one such strategic gain the Department had claimed has turned out to be an empty boast: the creation of a Tourism Board exclusively to lure Russian tourists.

“No such Board exists according to my knowledge,” said Mr U V Jose, the new tourism director. Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation, Mr Ratheesh C Nair, too, said he was unaware of any such move. In September 2015, the Department had officially announced that the tourism departments of Goa, Uttarkhand and Kerala had decided to form a Tourism Board to establish links with the Russian Tourism and Cultural Ministry.

An official statement in September had said that talks were held between Olga Yarilova, the head of Tourism and Regional Policy Department of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the then tour-ism director, P.I. Sheikh Pareeth.

As pre-conditions, Russia wanted the reduction of visa fees, and the airport fee incurred on chartered flights from Russia. It was also said that a team of Russian tour operators and state tourism representatives from Goa and Uttarkhand, India Tourism and Indian Embassy officials were present at the meeting.

Dr Manoj Khan, one of the leading Russian travel agents in the state, said that he had heard about the proposal. “I was in Moscow attending a fair when the tourism director is said to have met senior Russian officials. Later, I also came across the news in the papers. But no one from the Tourism Department had discussed such a proposal with Russian tour operators like me,” Dr Khan said.

Mr Pareeth, who is now the ports director, said it was a half-truth. “We had not mooted a Tourism Board. It was put forward by the other two states (Goa and Uttarkhand). They wanted to piggyback on our popularity,” he said.