PC Vishnunadh: ‘We will lure travellers to Keralam using Ayurveda, adventure tourism’

On the sidelines of the Onam festival and the tourism department’s weeklong celebrations, HT caught up with PC Vishnunadh, the state tourism and culture minister, to talk about the challenges and positives in both sectors. Excerpts:

It’s the first annual Onam celebrations under the new UDF government. What’s new this time compared to previous years?

Onam is the best time for tourists to visit Kerala. That’s the message we want to send. We conducted a strong campaign, especially on social media. On Aug 22, we had the Nehru Trophy snakeboat race. On Aug 30, we will have the Aranmula snakeboat race. For those wanting to see a glimpse of Pulikkali and Kummattikali, they can head to Thrissur. Travellers can taste the unique ‘vallasadya’ (a kind of traditional feast) in Aranmula during this period. This time, during the week-long festival in Trivandrum, we are hosting Kerala’s own art forms like Theyyam, Padayani and Tholpavakuthu, apart from music and dance performances. We have over 8,000 artists performing at various venues across the state. In Trivandrum alone, we have 3,000 artists at over 35 venues.

This year’s theme song for Onam has been sung by you and has picked up over a million views. How did that happen?

Some friends of mine suggested creating a special song and video for Onam. They suggested that I sing it. I politely declined. But they insisted me and said that the lyrics were by BK Harinarayanan and music by Jakes Bejoy. When I heard that, I thought I could give it a try. Both are world-class artists. The visualisation was by Dijo Jose Antony. I sang and I’m happy I could be a part of it.

Could you list out the challenges related to the two departments you’re in charge of – culture and tourism – since you took over in May?

The challenges are basic. For example, several of our high-profile destinations lack proper toilet facilities like Kovalam beach, Munnar, Alappuzha houseboat terminal and Fort Kochi. It can have a negative effect on travellers and harm all our marketing efforts. The second challenge is the absence of proper lighting at these destinations. Travellers should be able to come out and walk safely. Then there are specific issues. For example at Munnar, there are no proper parking facilities. This leads to a five-hour-long traffic jam in peak season. There is a paucity of land there. To address these challenges, we will be appointing ‘green marshals’ — a volunteer force to take care of destinations. They will be given proper training and clean uniforms to stand out. In the culture department, the situation is dire. There are only 27 staff at the culture directorate to manage all the culture-related initiatives across the state. We don’t even have a proper permanent office. They are working out of an old ramshackle building. We don’t have district or regional offices of the culture department. The goal is to lend a sense of form to the system and strengthen our institutions. We have announced that both tourism and cinema fields will be given ‘industry’ status. It will help both sectors grow.