THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Tourism brand is suddenly looking like the smart trickster in movies who profits from his fake association with big names. It has now turned out that Kerala Tourism’s association with tennis legend Steffi Graf, like in the case of Jackie Chan, Neymar and Amitabh Bachchan earlier, was nothing but hype. Steffi Graf, contrary to what was announced a year ago, will not be Kerala Ayurveda’s global ambassador.
Graf had indeed expressed interest but Kerala Tourism, after stealing Graf’s aura to sell ‘Visit Kerala 2015’, has failed to follow up on certain logistical issues raised by the tennis legend’s team. “There was a problem with her time schedule last year. She then said she would be available only during February, March and April this year. But with the elections coming up, we have not been able to follow up on Graf’s arrival,” tourism minister A P Anil Kumar said.
Nonetheless, the official appointment of Graf as Ayurveda’s ambassador was a phenomenal public relations triumph. The Kerala Tourism brand got a mighty boost by mere association with the 22-time grand slam winner. It created waves in the international tourism circuit, and as a senior tourism official put it, “Kerala was talked about in areas we had never managed to break in.”
No other post on Kerala Tourism’s hugely popular Facebook page had garnered likes the way the ‘Ambassador Graf’ link did. But after accumulating a multitude of FB likes and loads of goodwill, tourism planners have ignored Graf. The tourism minister had then said that a two-year Rs 3.96-crore package had been worked out with the former tennis great.
“Nothing was finalized,” the minister now insists. The original plan was to have Graf in the state for five days in the middle of July last year. During this period, a series of ayurveda-related ad campaigns were supposed to be shot in various tourism destinations in the state. It was also said that Graf would travel European countries as Kerala Ayurveda’s brand ambassador during her two-year contract period.
