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Assessing God's own country's worth

Sanjay K Pillai

In what could be a first for a state-owned enterprise, the Kerala Tourism Department has decided to go in for a brand valuation exercise for its 'God's Own Country' brand. In doing so, the Kerala tourism department joins the ranks of leading private companies like Infosys, HLL and BPL which have in recent times gone in for such an exercise.

One of the few states in the country to adopt a professional approach to the tourism industry, Kerala has appointed an independent tourism marketing consultant, Robert Cleverdon, in association with the WTO (World Tourism Organisation) to exploit the US market.

The independent consultant will provide the state with a three-year specific action plan, which will target key segments of the travelling populace in the US.

Kerala tourism secretary Amitabh Kant said that the move to go in for an independent brand valuation exercise was to ascertain the brand equity that 'God's Own Country' enjoyed and how it could benefit from the growth of tourism in the southern most state of India.

"The US is a long haul market and we need to approach it in a very professional and scientific manner. We have actively taken help from the WTO for the appointment of an independent consultant," Kant said.

The brand 'God's Own Country' is now closely identified with Kerala and the tourism department has sunk over Rs 1.50 billion over the last three years in promoting and building the brand. "We have not yet decided as to who would conduct the brand valuation exercise. An independent agency will give us the required respectability and legitimacy," Kant said.

Kerala has in recent times overtaken Rajasthan as the top tourism earner in India and has packaged its offerings to reinforce what the state is all about.

"We have not tried to ape the West. We have marketed various facets of the state- the community, the culture, the houseboats, the cuisine- each facet has been marked out and marketed separately," Kant said.

Figures available with Business Standard show that the tourism revenues from the state has been in region of about Rs 19.53 billion in 1999 and the number of foreign tourist arrivals have grown more than 100 per cent every year.

Domestic tourist arrivals have grown more than 300 per cent in the last five years while the state plan allocation for tourism has also increased substantially from 67 million in 1994-95 to Rs 460 million in 2000-01, an increase of 584 per cent.

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