A four-day Explore Kerala Fest show is running from February 22-25 in Abu Dhabi’s Mushrif Mall.
UAE-based retail conglomerate Lulu Group in association with the Kerala Tourism Department is among the main organisers of this event to promote the Indian state of Kerala in the Middle East as an attractive summer holiday destination.
Similar events to promote Kerala as a holiday destination will be carried out at Lulu Hypermarkets and shopping malls across the GCC in association with the Kerala Tourism department.
The show was jointly inaugurated by Sultan Hamad Al Mutawa Al Dhaheri, executive director of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and Navdeep Singh Suri, Indian ambassador to the UAE alongside other dignitaries.
In his speech, Al Dhaheri expressed his keen interest in promoting such tourism events to promote people-to-people contact and further boost the historic relation between the two countries. He also told the gathering that Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority intends to conduct similar tourism event in the state of Kerala to attract more Indian travellers to the emirate.
Suri also hailed the idea of conducting such tourism events in Abu Dhabi to attract more Arab travellers to Kerala and other parts of India.
According to a statement issued by Kerala Tourism, in 2015, there were 71,500 tourists from Saudi Arabia (65,048 in 2014 and 48,346 in 2013), 20,000-plus from the UAE (18,264 in 2014 and 17,475 in 2013) and 17,924 from Oman, who visited Kerala.