Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala tourism has won three gold awards from the Pacific Asian Travel Association(PATA). 

Kerala tourism won its first gold award for its ethnic restaurant at Kumarakom. The department's efforts in responsible tourism mission to empower women in Kumarakom, including Kumarakom Samrudhi Ethnic Food restaurant played a major role in this. 

Women’s art groups were set to promote tourism. Samrudhi Ethnic restaurant in Kumarakom ensured tourists were familiar with the local cuisine, while engaging women in environment-friendly works. All of this was considered for the gold award in the ‘women empowerment’ category.

The second gold award was for Kerala tourism’s website, which was chosen as the best one. The website of Kerala tourism, (www.keralatouirsm.org) was adjudged as the best website in the segment with respect to the marketing category.

The third was for the best advertising campaign of Kerala tourism travel advertisement broadcast media segment ‘Come Out and Play’. Stark Communications developed the campaign.

This year’s awards attracted 197 entries from 78 organisations and individuals worldwide. An independent judging committee selected the winners. The 2019 PATA Gold Awards Dinner and Award Presentation will take place in Nur-Sultan (Astana), Kazakhstan on Thursday, September 19 during PATA Travel Mart 2019.

Last year, Kerala tourism bagged the first gold award for its Yalla Kerala print media campaign in the Gulf countries. It displayed the greenery and backwaters of the state, which forms a different world from the Gulf countries. 

Kerala tourism even got the second gold award for an innovative poster the department had made for the third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), the biggest contemporary art show in South Asia. The poster showed a colourful boat and fishermen.