Monsoon weak over Kerala

Still not too many monsoon clouds over Kerala

Over a fortnight into the southwest monsoon season, Kerala is still not yet seeing the kind of torrential rains that normally heralds a good monsoon. A report from PTI in The Hindu says "Despite its timely onset, southwest monsoon has been weak over Kerala with the state registering an average deficiency of 40 per cent in rainfall in its first lap.

While north Kerala received fairly good rains in the first phase, the southern areas, especially the tail-end districts of Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram, had gone without any substantial rainfall in the last fortnight.

According to sources in the India Meteorological Department (IMD), lack of sufficient wind speed was the main factor constricting the monsoon activity in the region.

Shortly after its weak onset over Kerala coast on May 31, a low pressure was formed towards south of the Lakshadweep, which took a good portion of humidity towards the Oman coast. This came in the way of the monsoon activity gaining momentum over the Kerala coast, IMD Director M D Ramachandran told PTI on Sunday.

Now, a low pressure had been formed off the Orissa Coast in the Bay of Bengal, and, if it strengthened, the monsoon would pick up in the coming days bringing good rains across the state, he said.

In its initial phase, the state would have received an average 225 mm of rainfall but till last mid-weak there was deficiency of about 40 per cent.

Traditionally, the first fortnight after the onset of the monsoon -- known in local parlance as 'edavapathy'-- should have brought heavy rains. This was critical factor for farming operations and also essential to sustain the hydel power base of the state."

God's own dishes

Kerala's exquisite cuisine

The next time you curse your spouse for serving up puttu and kadala or appam and stew for breakfast, pause and count your blessings. There are people around the world who are prepared to spend precious money to travel all the way to Kerala to sample some of God's own dishes.

Apparently - if an international travel magazine is to be believed - these two dishes, along with tapioca and fish curry, constitute the best and healthiest of breakfasts. That conclusion may or may not be the outcome of the public relations efforts of Kerala Tourism, but it certainly drives home the need for a concerted and focused campaign to win the hearts and souls of globetrotters.

For a State that has generated few avenues for industrial aggrandizement, tourism still appears to be the silver lining. But the recent efforts of neighbouring States could well push Kerala to the back benches.

The Union Government, for instance, has allotted Rs 1.5 crore for the development of infrastructure necessary to boost beach tourism in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district, specifically in Muttom and Thekurichi.

And Karnataka's Tourism Department has embarked on a project to prepare an archaeological directory of the important monuments and places of interest that could be projected as tourist spots to visitors from both within the country and abroad. The archaeological directory is expected to list 1,360 monuments - including Humpi - out of the estimated 20,000 monuments in the State. A directory of artistes of culture and folklore of the State is also planned.

The problem that Kerala now needs to tackle is how to reinvent itself as a destination of choice for the international traveller. As marketing gurus Al Ries and Jack Trout say, "Marketing battles are not fought in places like Dallas, Detroit or Denver. Marketing battles are fought inside the mind."

Remember the old proverb: the way to the heart is through the stomach. Cuisine is as good a way to capture the mind of the weary international traveller as any other. Kerala has a bouquet of cuisines to offer ranging from the Malabar Muslim delicacies to the exotic Travancore Syrian Christian dishes. Not to forget the traditional food of the Hindu extended families.

The Casino Group had a visit from a large delegation of US chefs, food and travel writers. And their taste buds were really impressed by the bite and tang of the Kerala spread. Several of them have promised to come back for a second helping. And, the Casino Group was optimistic that they will be the ambassadors for Kerala's cuisine in foreign lands.

The foreign traveller is not interested in soup and soufflé. That he can get in large measure in any part of the world he travels. But not so, the puttu and kadala or the appam and stew. And that is what the large hoteliers as well as the smaller resort keepers are banking on today.

Can Kerala continue to capture the minds and imaginations of weary travellers? The answer to that will have to come from beyond the backwaters.

Medical tourism makes headway in Kerala

The next health trip

As healthcare costs in the West rise and the number of uninsured burgeons, medical tourism could well be the next big trip for Kerala as a destination.

Late in 2006 a news report from Kottayam said the Federation of Kerala Associations in North America (Fokana) was urging the Centre and the State Government to promote Kerala as a destination for medical tourism. "If Kerala does it," the Fokana president, Mr Sasidharan Nair, told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram, "there will be an unending stream of US citizens arriving in the State for their medical needs."

And the reason for that potent attraction was plainly explained by the Fokana General Secretary, Mr Aniyan George: "An open-heart surgery in the US costs Rs 9 million whereas it can be done at less than half a million rupees in Kerala. Dental treatment is another sector that has huge potential here." Little wonder then that Fokana has plans to bring out a directory of Kerala-based hospitals and doctors in the US.

Already, some non-resident Indian entrepreneurs have begun cashing in on the potential. According to a report by Kyle Arnold in The Brownsville Herald of Texas, Mr Hari Namboodiri, who grew up in Kerala, is setting up a travel-health company called Health Options International to send people to India for cost-effective medical surgeries.

"It's only about one-quarter or one-fifth of the cost to have a procedure done in India, even after travel costs," Mr Namboodiri told The Herald. He hopes to be able to arrange operations within just a week or two, saving patients thousands on elective surgeries such as gastric bypass or angioplasty. And guess where his sights are set for his health guests? Kerala.

Medical tourism - the practice of travelling to a foreign country for medical treatment - is becoming a booming industry as healthcare costs in the West rise and the number of uninsured burgeons. According to the US National Coalition on Health Care, about 46 million Americans have no health insurance at all, and about 500,000 people went out of the country last year for medical treatment.

No longer are developing countries suspect when it comes to technology and expertise. Arnold explains why: "One of the reasons that medical care in countries such as India has improved so dramatically in the last few years is the number of Indian doctors who are being trained in the US.

About 30 per cent of all graduate students in American universities are Indian, according to the US Department of State, and about 20 per cent of US doctors were born abroad, many of them Indian. That has allowed hospitals to gain international accreditation and even align themselves with well-known American institutions such as Johns Hopkins and Harvard University."

By combining medical procedures with tourism packages, the health tourism sector hopes to dangle a double attraction - along the lines of "Get your knees replaced and then sprint around to take in the sights and sounds of God's Own Country!" The handsomest draw to potential customers would be the savings, which, in some cases, could be more than $80,000 after travel arrangements, according to Mr Namboodiri.

Kerala's historically sustained emphasis on public health seems to be paying off in all this. Kerala has long reported the highest per capita expenditure on public health among all the Indian States. Kerala today has the country's most advanced and equitable healthcare system. The average Keralite's penchant for therapeutic and curative treatment transcends systems of medicine. The modern Western-oriented allopathic and homeopathic systems co-exist happily with a host of alternative indigenous systems, including ayurveda.

During the southwest monsoon months of June to August, ayurveda clinics and spas do brisk business since the rainy season is traditionally acknowledged to be particularly congenial for ayurvedic therapies. Rejuvenation packages range from the simple body massage with herbal oils and powders at Rs 250 ($6) to an intensive four-week package costing Rs 350,000 ($8041).

A 2003 study by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the consultancy firm McKinsey predicted that by 2012, medical tourism alone could contribute up to Rs 10,000 crore (approx. $2.3 billion) in additional revenue to upmarket tertiary hospitals in India and will account for 3 to 5 per cent of the total Indian healthcare delivery market. In 2003, of the 2.5 million who visited India, about 12 per cent opted for health tours.

Kerala's comparative advantages in medical tourism are, of course, the cost of medicare and the skill levels of its trained doctors and surgeons. A hip replacement surgery that could cost up to $12,000 in the West can be done in Kerala for less that one-third that amount. A regular dental filling that would cost Euro 400 in Austria would cost merely Euro 10 in Kerala. Most surgeries can be done in Kerala at a tenth of the cost that would be charged in a Western hospital. Clearly, medical tourism seems to be the next health trip for Kerala.

Malabar Marvels

Untapped marvels of Malabar

As in most other spheres of development, the northern parts of Kerala - often collectively referred to as Malabar - have suffered from a lack of attention in the case of a potentially lucrative area of business - tourism.

Given the overemphasis on the central and southern parts of the State by Kerala's tourism planners, few travellers realise that the Malabar area has as much - if not more - to offer in terms of sights and experiences, often of the adventure variety.

Thus, apart from beaches and backwaters (yes, Malabar is home to some of Kerala's most scenic, yet unexplored backwaters, normally only associated with the Kuttanad area of central Kerala), the Malabar area abounds with forests and mountains that offer the perfect escape for the nature enthusiast and serious eco-traveller.

Many private hoteliers and tour operators have already cashed in on these unique advantages, setting up exotic treetop getaways, plantation theme resorts, jungle lodges and trekking trails. But most of them are small, single-owner units with limited rooms and capacity, catering to a niche and exclusive clientele. They neither have the international reach nor the market.

The potential of the region notwithstanding, even the initial government initiated tourism moves in Malabar have often floundered. Consider Bekal, once touted as the pioneering path-breaker for the travel and tourism trade in Malabar. Not long ago, the Bekal Resorts Development Corporation Ltd (BRDC) announced plans for three five-star resorts at Kappil, Uduma and Chembikkara, as well as the construction of 33 roads in the 190-odd acres that constitute the area of the Bekal project.

Endogenous tourism

Endogenous tourism aims to harness the traditional skills of rural artisans.

In December 2003, buried in the inside pages of some newspapers, was a small story about a possible initiative that could augur well for Kerala's future. Aranmula, a tiny, sleepy hamlet on the banks of the Pamba river in Pathanamthitta district, might become one of the sites to feature in the Endogenous Tourism Project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). A team from the Government of India has just completed a visit to assess Aranmula's suitability for inclusion in the project, and a decision is likely to be made soon.