The Malabar Tourism and Travel Mart Sep 2005:
will be held from September 1-4, 2005, informed Mr. K. C.
Venugopal, Minister for Tourism. The Mart is held to market
the tourism potential of Malabar internationally. Around 250
international delegates and 100 domestic delegates would participate
in the mart. A tour will be arranged for the delegates to
destinations at Kannur, Kasaragod, Wayanad, Thrissur and Palakkad.
The venues for the programmes are Kadavu Resort at Kozhikode
(1st 3rd Sept.) and Vythiri Resort in Wayanad (4th Sep).
Tourist arrivals to Kerala
not affected by Tsunami
The tourist arrivals
to Kerala have not been affected by the Tsunami wave attack
that took place about three months ago, according to the statistics
with the state tourism department. Even though the incident
happened during the peak tourist season, it failed to affect
the industry as was feared. The trend of cancellation of bookings
was short-lived. International tourist arrivals recorded a
16.69 per cent growth in 2004 when compared to the previous
year. The number of domestic tourists who have visited the
State in 2004 is 5.8 million, which is in fact an increase
of 0.101 million compared to last year. Interestingly, January,
the month, which could have been badly affected by
the Tsunami
witnessed an increase of 1.5 percent in international tourist
arrivals. International tourist arrivals have significance
for the State's tourism industry, since they stay for longer
duration, and spend more. It is calculated that on an average,
international tourists stay for about 14 days in Kerala, while
the domestic tourists stay for a maximum of 6 days.
Kerala has emerged
as a premium tourist destination with steady increase in the
tourist inflow. This, the Principal Secretary for Tourism,
Mr. E. K. Bharat Bhushan attributes to the travel- trade fraternity
across the State, which without fail comes up with inspiring
experience-centred products. Last year, Kerala Tourism participated
in 12 domestic and six international fairs. The responses
from trade participants in these fairs were very enthusiastic.
Focused promotional activities and participation in major
international travel and trade fairs have enhanced the popularity
of Kerala. This is part of the long-term plan with focus on
key markets like the United Kingdom and Germany. High potential
markets like Italy, Spain and Australia would be explored,
said Mr. Bharat Bhushan. Italy is the fifth largest emerging
market for Kerala's tourism industry and Australia is the
seventh.
Champakulam Boat Race, Champakulam Alappuzha Event
Date : 22 Jun,2005
Venue:
Champakkulam, Alappuzha district.
The
Champakkulam boat race is the first of the season and is one
of the few, which are centuries old. The festivities include
spectacular water floats, decorated boats, Vanchipattu or
the song of the oarsmen and the most thrilling Chundanvallom
race. Chundans are a category of boats that are over 100 feet
in length with raised prow. They were called snake boats by
the colonial rulers and continue to be known so till date.
Getting
there:
Nearest railway station: Alappuzha about 24 kms away.
Nearest airport: Cochin International Airport, about 85 kms
away ; from Alappuzha town 14km.
Tourism Awards for
2003-04 declared
Shri. K.C.Venugopal,
Honble Minister for Tourism and Devaswom has declared
the State Awards for Tourism for the year 2003-04
in a Press Conference at 11 AM on 19.05.2005.
The following
are different categories of awards and award winners
Sl.
No.
Category
Name
of Award winner
1.
I (1)
Tour Operator/Travel Agent who handled the maximum
number of tourists in Kerala.
M/s. Travel Corporation
India Pvt. Ltd., Telstar building, Ravipuram, Kochi
2.
I (2)
Tour Operator/Travel Agent who earned the maximum
amount of foreign exchange in Kerala.
M/s. Travel Corporation
India Pvt. Ltd.,
Telstar building, Ravipuram, Kochi
3.
I (3)
Best Tour operator from Kerala
The
Great India Tour Company Pvt Ltd,
Thiruvananthapuram
A well conceived and
designed brochure on Tourism in Wayanad brought
out by a Wayanad Tourism Organization, a private
agency with their own resources.
A global destination
for health tourism
India
has a bright future in the field of healthcare,
tells this eminent cardiac surgeon to Radhakrishnan
Kuttoor .It
is very important to combine clinical work with
research. Unfortunately, in India, this has become
a difficult task due to our own faults," says
Dr. Cherian.
K.M. Cherian, eminent cardiac surgeon who heads
the Chennai-based International Centre for Cardio
Thoracic and Vascular Diseases, says India has
a bright future in the field of healthcare and
related technological advancement. Dr. Cherian
said the country was fast becoming a global destination
for health tourism. The vision of President A.P.J.
Abdul Kalam to provide urban facilities in rural
areas (PURA) was the first and foremost step in
this direction, he said. Dr. Cherian claimed his
healthcare venture to provide advanced and state-of-the-art
cardiac care facility in Parumala, a village in
Central Travancore region in Kerala, was the only
one of its kind in the world. This could also
be a boon to the State's health tourism.
"It is very important to combine clinical work
with research. Unfortunately, in India, this has
become a difficult task due to our own faults,"
said Dr. Cherian.
"If you do not have technology, you will not be
able to move ahead with research projects." Dr.
Cherian alleged that the Department of Biotechnology
was often found to be maintaining a partisan attitude,
destroying the very spirit of the scientific community,
especially in the South.
According
to Dr. Cherian, the stem cells in the umbilical
chord are embryonic and if proper atmosphere and
nutrients are given, they can be grown into different
body parts like bone, bone marrow, teeth, heart
muscles, valves, etc. He claimed that the International
Centre in Chennai was in the process of growing
heart muscles and had filed the papers for patent
for the special technique in November 2003.
"The heart of pigs and that of humans are identical.
If the pig cells in the pig heart valve are removed
through decelluarisation process, the human body
would readily accept it." Dr Cherian's Chennai-based
international centre has signed a memorandum of
understanding with the State-owned Meat Products
India Limited in Koothattukulam in Kottayam district
to procure pig heart valves. The MPIL factory
is the largest piggery unit in the country and
the Chennai centre has set up a pig heart valve
and ureter-harvesting unit at the factory in Koothattukulam.
Decellularisation
is being done at the Chennai centre. Dr. Cherain
said the centre was yet to commercialize the tissue-engineered
heart valve, which cost 5,000 Euro (Rs. 2.5 lakhs)
in Germany, which has the first unit in the world.
However, the indigenously developed valve could
be sold at a competitive price of Rs. 35,000 in
India.
He said Japan was far ahead in the use of tissue
engineered, biodegradable heart valves than the
U.S. and other developed countries. The clinical
use of porcine xenotransplant is gaining wide
acceptance the world over, said Dr. Cherian.
| 
India
has a bright future in the field of healthcare,
tells this eminent cardiac surgeon to Radhakrishnan
Kuttoor .It
is very important to combine clinical work with
research. Unfortunately, in India, this has become
a difficult task due to our own faults," says
Dr. Cherian.
