Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Tourism has won three Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Awards this year. PATA, a nonprofit membership association, promotes responsible expansion of tourism in the Asia Pacific region.
The state tourism board bagged the awards for its ethnic restaurant in Kumarakom, ‘Come Out and Play’ advertising campaign, and its tourism website.
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Kumarakom’s ethnic restaurant ‘Samridhi’ won the award in women empowerment initiative segment. The restaurant, started as part of Kerala Responsible Tourism Mission to encourage and empower local female entrepreneurs, is run by a team of eight women.
Women groups reportedly manage 13,500 of the total 15,500 Responsible Tourism Mission units in Kerala. Samridhi not just rustles up Kerala’s traditional cuisines for guests, but it also creates women cultural groups and connects them to the tourism industry, empowering local women in the bargain.
The advertising campaign ‘Come Out and Play’ that won in the travel advertisement broadcast media segment was run by India-based design agency Stark Communications which specialises in tourism.
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The Kerala Tourism website, on the other hand, brought a PATA Gold home in the best tourism website segment of marketing category. The website has been designed and maintained by digital media company Invis Multimedia.
Astana in Kazakhstan will host the 2019 PATA Gold Awards Dinner and Presentation on September 19 during PATA Travel Mart 2019.
