Kerala now known to the world as “God’s Own Country”, is the tourism success story par excellence of India. Other states which have been traditionally popular tourist destinations, are now wondering how Kerala has overtaken them

Kerala always had the necessary ingredients to make it a tourist magnet-high mountains close to the sea , a relationship of harmony and no friction between its people with different faiths and ethnic groups . Many years of Communistic and socialist rule had created a quality of life that is comparable to the developed countries and also a strong cooperative movement.

With the return of Malayalees rich with money from the Gulf, there was a need to channelise these energies and the Government and beuaracracy jumped in with the vision of making Kerala the tourist destination for the rich and the famous of the world.

The selling feature of Kerala are its backwaters which have been formed rivers that flow from the Western Ghats into the Arabian Sea. These have formed a serene and placid network of lakes, canals and estuaries. These waterbodies have been traditionally used for the export of spices to Europe in the past and are still being presently used as a means of transportation of goods and people between the interior areas and the ports. Today they are transporting the visitors to a lovely , calm , and an enchanting blue world and the tourists are yearning for more..

One can take a boat and travel in these cool backwaters . When one notices the blue sky bending into the water and splashing it blue with the gentle trees adding a dash of green the tourist is mesmerized. One of the places where boats ply is Kumarakom. The boats usually travel from Kumarakom to Manaltheeram, which is a distance of 11 km. Today, Kumarakom, which is at a ddistance of 60 km from Kochi is on the world tourism map.
Foreign tourists usually prefer Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam and Alappuzha and Indian tourists are known to prefer Thrissur, Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode .

Posh resorts have come up at all these places. Ayurveda is a must experience at all these places although, the purists scoff at this as just a body massage and that the actual treatment needs to be given some time.

Other attractions of Kerala include the expressive dance form, Mohiniyattam and the indigenous martial art called Kalappiriyat