The 'beef fry' tweet of Kerala tourism department may have garnered a few negative comments on Twitter, with the users accusing the tourism board of hurting religious sentiments. But if one goes by the data, the Kerala tourism is on a roll.
There has been a 15 per cent increase in the number of domestic tourists who visited Kerala during the second quarter of 2019, compared to the previous year. As many as 47,79,739 tourists visited the sate in the last six months of 2019. The figure was 41,49,122 during the same period in 2018. Similar spurt was witnessed in the first half too with the total number of tourist arrivals reaching 46,12,937 as compared to 43,18,406 during the same period in the previous year.
The official Twitter handle of Kerala tourism, which has over 1.9 million followers, had invited ire from a section of netizens for a post on a beef delicacy. The tweet along with the picture read: "Tender chunks of beef, slow-roasted with aromatic spices, coconut pieces, and curry leaves. A recipe for the most classic dish, Beef Ularthiyathu, the stuff of legends, from the land of spices, Kerala."
Apart from the image of beef, which has been banned in most of the states in the country, what may have irked some is the fact that the tweet was made on January 15, the day of Makar Sankranti, a Hindu festival of harvest. The tweet started garnering negative comments from users who accused the tourism board of hurting religious sentiments. The post has been retweeted 3, 900 times and received over 13, 400 likes so far.
Many prominent figures, including MP Shobha Karandlaje and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) national spokesperson Vinod Bansal, had come out openly against the tweet. "Is this tweet meant for promoting tourism or promoting beef? Isn't it hurting sentiments of crores of cow worshippers? Is this tweet generated from the pious land of Shankaracharya?", Bansal asked in the tweet. Bansal also tagged Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and state’s Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran in his tweet and asked the three to "advise Kerala tourism".
Some also questioned the choice of the day of the tweet, while others were more accommodating saying they were fine with Keralites relishing beef, but it should not be put on an advertisement as it would hurt religious sentiments.
The state tourism minister, however, rubbished all the allegations. “People are unnecessarily trying to create a controversy by communalising an advertisement which was put out with good intentions. It is not just beef, the department has already uploaded pictures of favourite delicacies of the state, including pork,'' said the minister.
He also added that none of these controversies will deter the tourists from visiting God's own country.
And he is right.
The number of tourists who visited Kerala last year had touched almost half the state’s population and it had collected Rs 45,598.01 crore as revenues from tourism last year. The amount was Rs 36,528.01 crore in the previous year. Of the total footfalls, 1.09 million were foreign tourists.
United Kingdom (UK) accounted for the largest number of foreign visitors followed by the United States, France and Germany.
Among domestic tourists, Tamil Nadu contributed 9.84 per cent of the visits, followed by Karnataka with 6.92 per cent and Maharashtra with 4.66 per cent. The other major source markets are Andhra Pradesh (2.3 per cent), Gujarat (1.95 per cent), Delhi (1.89 per cent).
“Beef or no beef, Kerala attracts tourists because of its sheer unique beauty. The statistics speaks for itself,'' said an official with the department.
