Kerala Tourism Development Corporation

The Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) is a public sector undertaking that conducts and regulates the tourism activities of the Indian state of Kerala. The KTDC is headquartered at Thiruvanathapuram and has offices across all the districts of Kerala. The agency also operates hotels, resorts, and tourist rest houses in different key locations within the state. The department has the official slogan Official host to God's own country. It is one of the most profitable ventures of Kerala Government

History

Kerala was relatively an unaware state among tourist circles until early 60s. The first initiative to popularize Kerala as a tourist destination was undertaken by Travancore's 1st Prince, H.H Col. Goda Varma Raja (Husband of H.H The Queen of Travancore) started Kerala Tours Limited to popularize key tourist locations in Travancore Kingdom. When Travancore merged with India, Kerala Tours Limited became a private entity under Travancore Royal Family. For more than 20 years since Independence, Kerala trend to ignore tourism as key industry, leaving KTL and other private players to lead the role. In 1960s, KTL struck gold, by collaborating with Thomas Cook and started popularizing Kovalam among western countries which started the advent of Hippie culture in Kovalam Beach. The strong inflow of tourists into Kovalam, started Kerala Government to consider Tourism as key industry. Though it tried to nationalize Kerala Tours Limited, it soon fell into legal issues. This...
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