Two years back, the World Travel and Tourism Council predicted an average annual growth of 11.6 percent for tourism in Kerala over the decade, eclipsing the 10.2 percent estimated for Turkey, the world’s fastest growing tourism destination, and India (9.7 percent) as a whole.

During the first half of this year, the brand Kerala Tourism registered a 34 percent increase in foreign tourist arrivals. Domestic and foreign tourist arrivals to the state have grown from just over five million in 2000 to nearly seven million in 2005.

As a result, hotels and resorts are fully booked till March 2007 and the state government is encouraging private investors to launch new projects to add more rooms to meet the demand.

Over the next ten years, Kerala is expected to register an annual growth of 23.5 percent in terms of visitor exports, or external account earnings, as against the world average of 6.5 percent for this period.

And the boom in tourism is compared only to the largescale migration into the Gulf three decades ago redrawing the economic landscape of the state. Along with huge overseas remittances, tourism industry helps the state’s economy to stay afloat.

The WTTC forecasts suggest Kerala will nearly triple its current level of travel and tourism economy employment to touch two million jobs in 2012. According to Jose Dominic, president, Kerala Travel Mart Society, the state needs to add at least 1,000 rooms every year to meet the demand-supply gap.

It is the fastest growing industry with annual projected revenue of Rs.100 billion. With more than 700,000 jobs at the current level, it employs more people than the state government.

The state has now three international airports -- Calicut, Thiruvananthapuram and India’s first corporate airport in Kochi -- and the work on the fourth one has just started in the northern town of Cannanore.

Kerala Tourism, which launched the high-voltage “God’s Own Country” campaign a decade ago, is now promoting less-known destinations, mainly in the northern Malabar region, through its “unseen, unknown Kerala” campaign.

Innovative products, such as home and farm stays, have already become a hit and the authorities are promoting meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) tourism by entering into joint ventures with private players.

Gulf-based NRI business groups Galfar and Emke have set up international convention centers in Kochi and Trichur that host several international conferences while another 1,400-seater convention center is being built in Thiruvananthapuram.

Kerala also made a debut into medical tourism, the latest buzzword in Indian travel circles with its own multispecialty hospitals and helicopter services offered at much lower costs than Europe and America.

Then there is a fascinating history, vividly recorded by Arab travelers like Ibn Battutah, rich culture, interesting customs, unique architects, a well-entrenched alternative system of healthcare, superlative food and powerful art forms.

Beaches, backwaters and hill stations remain to be Kerala’s unique selling point. They offer a variety of services like backwater cruises on the traditional kettuvallams (houseboats built with wood, cane and coir) and trekking along the high ranges.

Kerala has a 590-km-long coastline, the palm-fringed sands washed by azure waters, peppered with ancient forts that once received Arab, French, Portuguese and Roman travelers.

Further south near Kovalam, beautiful and secluded strands Chovvara and Poovar also offer rest, relaxation and Ayurvedic rejuvenation therapy at a few luxury resorts. Varkala, 51 km north of the capital city, is a favored haunt of the backpacker.

Further north, Quilon and Alleppey (nearest airport: Cochin) are important gateways to the backwaters and Kumarakam on the Vembanad Lake, where former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee penned his musings, is a favorite. Kuttanad region that includes Alleppey and Kumarakam, is called the rice bowl of Kerala for paddy is widely cultivated.

Alleppey, the Venice of the East, is the hub for backwater tourism. Kettuvallams are available for hire on a daily basis or for longer duration to take visitors on the old waterways. Snake-boat races, with spectacular regattas usually held between August and October, are the most significant traditional event here. It involves long thin boats powered by up to 120 oarsmen. The most famous snake boat race is the Nehru Trophy Boat Race.

The port city of Kochi is well connected to the rest of the world with its fine airport and seaport where Dubai’s DP world is building international container transshipment terminal. Ernakulam has trendy restaurants and up-market shops while Fort Cochin and the islands of Vypeen, Vallarpadom, Gundu and Bolghatty boast of its colonial past with its Portuguese and Dutch mansions.

Malabar also boasts of pristine backwaters and beaches including Kappad (nearest airport: Calicut) where the 15th century Portuguese voyager Vasco da Gama landed heralding long years of occupation. Bekal (nearest airport: Mangalore) in the northernmost Kasaragod district is being promoted as an answer to the overcrowded Kovalam and Varkala.

The Western Ghats on the border with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots with rich flora and fauna. The holidaymakers make a beeline for Munnar (nearest airport: Cochin) in central Kerala and Wayanad (nearest airport: Calicut) in the north for experiencing a different Kerala that hosts vast tracts of tea and coffee plantations.

Kumbalangi, a tiny village facing the Cochin backwaters on the west, is the first eco-friendly tourist village in India where nature can be seen in its essence. Plastic is banned and there are no manmade tourist structures like resorts and walkways. Kalagramam or village of arts here displays handicrafts and equipment. Essentially a fishing hamlet, the vast green vegetation, consisting of big trees such as mango and jackfruit, along with shrubs and grass make this an ideal dwelling place for birds and rodents.

Medical tourism, mixing fun and relaxation with wellness and health care, is also catching up fast in the state. Leading names in the field are Lakeshore Hospital in Cochin headed by NRI businessman M.A. Yousuf Ali and Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences in Trivandrum headed by ex-Dammam doctor MI Sa’adullah who also has an offshore facility in Bahrain.

The Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences in Calicut, headed by another NRI Dr. Azad Mooppan, is also doing a pioneering job in the field.