"A major hindrance towards development of tourism sector in the state is the non-availability of direct flights from international and national tourism markets," state K C Venugopal, Tourism Minister said.
Besides, high prices of domestic air travel was also forcing potential domestic tourists to opt for visiting southeast Asian countries, he pointed out.
The state government has requested the civil aviation ministry to sanction direct flights to major tourism markets like UK, France, Germany, US and Spain. German airline Lufthansa has already shown interest in operating flights to Kerala from Germany and the state government has requested the Centre to give them necessary clearance, he said.
Kerala recorded very high growth of over 17 per cent in foreign arrivals during 2004. International tourism arrivals increased to 3.46 lakh in 2004 from 2.95 lakh in the previous year.
The domestic tourist arrivals were 59.72 lakh during 2004. It was estimated that total earnings from tourism in the state in 2004 was Rs 6828 crore (Rs 68.28 billion), including foreign exchange earning of about Rs 1300 crore (Rs 13 billion), he said, adding the investment in tourism which employs about eight lakh people was about Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) per year.
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