DRThiruvananthapuram: The fifth edition of Kerala Blog Express will be flagged off from the Kerala capital on March 18. The annual blogger outreach campaign of Kerala Tourism will have the participation of 30 bloggers from 28 countries across the globe this year. Bloggers from countries such as France, the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Venezuela and Peru will be among the participants.
The chosen bloggers will take part in a two-week-long journey across the State, which will be flagged off from the Mascot Hotel here by Kadakampally Surendran, State Tourism Minister. After being flagged off from Thiruvananthapuram, the bloggers will travel across the hills, beaches, backwaters, villages and various city life experiences in Kerala, and end the trip in Kochi on April 1.
Some of the places to be covered include Alappuzha, Kumarakom, Thrissur, Munnar, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasargod. The chosen travellers would upload photos, videos and articles about the beauty and charm of Kerala and share them with followers all over the world. The entire journey from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod will be documented by the bloggers. Photos, videos and articles will be shared by the bloggers across their followers to help Kerala Tourism reach out to the aspiring travellers from around the world.
The Kerala Blog Express, which has emerged as a successful campaign for Kerala Tourism, will have its focus on various aspects, including social media campaigns, familiarisation trips and bloggers’ meet. According to Kadakampally Surendran, “Holding aloft the ‘Trip of a Lifetime’ tag, the fifth edition of Kerala Blog Express will be successful enough in bringing travel bloggers from across the globe to Kerala. In the course of their journey they would also be documenting their experiences in Kerala for the travellers who look forward to travelling to the State.”
According to Rani George IAS, Secretary, Tourism, “The Kerala Blog Express accords added emphasis to social media marketing and it would help reap the benefits as the unique initiative would reach out to travellers from across the globe.” P Bala Kiran IAS, Director, Kerala Tourism, added that the success of the previous editions of Kerala Blog Express has brought about much confidence to go ahead with the fifth edition of the campaign. The tourism department has made the initiative unique by combining various aspects such as campaign on social media, familiarisation trips, bloggers’ meet and road trip in a major way.”
The bloggers were chosen from 1727 entries through an online voting system, which garnered over 58,000 votes. The previous edition of the campaign saw a participation of 29 bloggers from 23 countries, selected through similar voting process that garnered 38,000 votes. The earlier four editions of Kerala Blog Express were immensely successful, and had aided Kerala Tourism to set a new benchmark in destination marketing. All the past editions have brought to Kerala Tourism a combined strength of more than 100 Brand Ambassadors who travelled the length and breadth of the picturesque State. The unique campaign had garnered over 5000 entries over the last 5 years, and all of them have been mesmerised by their ‘Trip of a lifetime!’
