After Kerala tourism’s tongue-in-cheek ‘unwind at safe resorts’ tweet in the context of Karnataka politics, ‘God’s own country’ has floated a greetings video on Eid-ul-Fitr, which has gone viral among its Arab clientele and the diaspora market. The short video depicts a day in Kerala, during the ongoing holy month of Ramadan.

“We have been using the short video greetings to win over holidayers to the state by projecting the festive theme, cuisine, and ambience during special occasions such as Onam and New Year,” says P Balakiran, director, Kerala Tourism.

The 90-second Eid Mubarak video was placed on the official website of Kerala Tourism and YouTube from Wednesday. The focus is on namaz, celebrations and the richness of traditional Muslim cuisine.

Kerala tourism had seen 11% growth in tourist arrival in the last fiscal. It has also set an ambitious target of increasing domestic tourist arrivals by 50 % by 2021, says Rani George, secretary, Kerala Tourism. For the monsoon season Ayurveda rejuvenation packages, Arab tourists constitute a growing segment of its international clientele.

The video in https://www.keralatourism.org/eid/ concludes with the lavish spread of cuisine for the nombu thura, the breaking of fast, and the image of the iconic Palayam mosque in Thiruvananthapuram. The concept and visualisation of the video is by IT solution provider Invis Multimedia and music by the award-winning music composers Sreevalsan J Menon and A Jaydevan.

“Beyond increasing business revenues, it is important for secular destinations to come out with short creative videos on diverse festivals, at a time, when beautiful places like Kashmir are disturbed by violence and ethnic tensions. This would help restore faith in multi-religious fabric that the country is famed for,” says Paula Winder, a Berlin-based documentary-maker, who is touring the state.