THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
The Planning Board has called the tourism department’s bluff. The board, employing a unique methodology based on the per capita GDP of Euro countries, has punctured the department’s optimism on foreign tourist arrivals.
“The department of tourism places the tourism arrival figure at three million for 2020 with annual growth rate of 15 per cent per annum, which far exceeds the projections made by us,” the board’s perspective plan 2030 states.
The board estimates that the foreign arrivals to the state will only be 1.86 million by 2020. According to it, the magic figure of three million foreign arrivals will be achieved only a decade later in 2030.
The board’s methodology has revealed that economic upheavals badly affect foreign arrivals. The income elasticity of a foreign tourist’s visit to Kerala in relation to the per capita GDP of Euro countries is 3.3.
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