Tourism Plan for Bekal: A Case of Bekal Port, Special Tourism Area of Keralas

The tourism as an industry also third important sector that attracts foreign money to the country.Number of travellers who are interested in spending their valuable time in leading tourist destinations is increasing everyday. It has been booming and developing since primitive , but it has been in the last few decades that specific attention has started to be given to this environment friendly industry because of the income from this in the form of foreign exchange and other means. Tourism has expanded from a relatively small activity of limited importance in the early 19th century to arguably the largest industry in the World today. Olden days human beings had a pursuit for wandering, people used to move for food and shelter after it became a wealthy affair of some opulent people visiting places for leisure activities. Now globally, tourism is a vital industry, recognized as an activity essential to the life of nations because of its direct effects on the social, cultural, educational and economic sectors of national societies and their international relations. India is one of the most popular destinations in Asia, bounded by the Himalayan ranges in the north, and surrounded on three sides by water (the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean), with a long history and diverse culture. Kerala has always been a favourite destination for the foreign as well as domestic tourists. Until the early 1980‟s, Kerala was a relatively unknown destination. However, marketing campaigns launched by the Kerala Tourist Development Corporation laid the foundation for the growth of the tourism industry in the state. Today, Kerala tourism is a Global super brand and regarded as one of the most famous tourist destinations. In 2017, Kerala attracted one million foreign tourists and 14 million domestic tourists. An annual increase of 10 per cent in foreign tourists and 11.3 per cent in domestic tourist arrivals (Kerala Tourism statistical report.