The Hindu Business Line : Le Meridien chalks out plans for lean seasons

IN a bid to revitalise the traditional lean tourist season starting from April, the Le Meridien group in Kerala has launched a new marketing initiative.

The hotel is currently exploring opportunities worldwide, with special focus on promoting God's own country from the Gulf countries to Britain and the CIS countries .

Addressing a press conference, Mr Sanjay Sharma, General Manager of Le Meridien said: "Next only to Hawaii, Kerala has all the virgin tourist destinations, offering a rich and varied experiences ranging from seaside resorts to hills and wildlife tourism, backwaters and cultural getaways. Our aim is to tap this surge in Kerala tourism and join hands with the intensive and consistent efforts to make the State an international destination."

To facilitate this goal, the hotel was hosting a group of nine prominent and leading tour operators from UAE in association with Concord Exotic Voyages. The venture also had the support of Gulf Air.

In this connection, the Gulf Air Holidays had brought out a new brochure, which has a special and exclusive focus on Kerala as a tourist destination.

"The European expatriate population working in the Gulf countries have been increasingly looking for short-breaks at nearby destinations. And Kerala with its rich cultural and historical legacy fits the bill perfectly," Mr Mohan Kallat, Senior Executive with Gulf Air said. The holidays during Id, Ramzan or even a long weekend would be the perfect getaway opportunity for the Europeans, involving minimum hours of flying time and maximum hours of leisure. These holidays are not sufficiently long enough for him to go back home, but long enough to prompt him into taking a break, Mr Kallat pointed out. And Gulf Air with its 12 times-a-week schedule to Kerala offers the perfect conduit.

"The monsoon package meant for the Arabs of the Gulf countries should be revived," Mr Sharma said. This would not only boost occupancy levels during the lean season, but would also give an added fillip to health tourism and the ayurveda package, since this traditional system of Indian medicine is best practiced during the rains. Le Meridien has a very strong brand image in the Gulf countries with as many as five hotels in Dubai and a large number of resident clientele, Mr Sharma said.

The hotel had a 27 per cent growth in leisure tourist arrivals last year and an 18 per cent growth in business visitors. The growth in arrivals from the Gulf countries was as high as 32 per cent and the number of ayurveda packages sold in the Gulf region last year was huge, Mr Sharma said.

Concord Exotic Voyages brought in tour operators from agencies like DNATA, Al Majid Travels, Ajman National Travel Agency, Gulf Air and White Sands Tours/Travels from Dubai, Al Faisal Travels and Skyline Travels from Sharjah.

More Stories on : Strategy | Hotels | Kerala

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Le Meridien chalks out plans for lean seasons

Price cuts not due to competition, says P&G

`Piracy survives because someone is willing to pay'

Tobacco ad ban: Different strokes for different folks

Coca-Cola launches Olympic Torchbearer nomination programme

LG promotional scheme for PCs

Fontus Water to open water stores in 50 cities

Sony to spruce up your weekends

Luxury watchmaker sees growth potential in India