Kerala Tourism and Sri Lanka have decided to join hands for developing tourism in the region with the latter also considering operation of a cruise ship between Colombo and Kochi, a state minister said on Friday.

"The Sri Lankan Minister of Tourism and Sports, Navin Dissanayak, has applauded Kerala's growth in tourism and expressed his interest in joining hands with us for developing tourism circuits and joint promotions," said Kerala Tourism Minister A.P. Anil Kumar.

The minister, along with top Kerala Tourism officials, was in Sri Lanka and held discussions with tourism officials there to finalise this joint strategy to promote tourism which will be beneficial for both parties.

The groundwork for this visit to Sri Lanka took place when Kerala Tourism officials met Navin Dissanayak during the four-day ITB Berlin (Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin) in March and discussed the idea of a joint initative.

Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin is the world's largest tourism trade fair.

Another development that happened during the two-day visit of the Kerala delegation was when the island nation's seaplane operator based in Colombo expressed its interest to partner with corporates in Kerala a sea plane service in the state.

"A high-level delegation from Sri Lankan Tourism will visit Kerala shortly for further deliberations in the identified tourism destination areas and finalise steps for cooperation," said Kerala Tourism Secretary G Kamala Vardhana Rao, who was also part of the Kerala delegation.

It was decided that a regional circuit with the Maldives would also be formed.

Joint promotional activities would be conducted by Kerala and Sri Lanka to target travellers from China, Germany and Russia.

During their visit, the Kerala delegation also met High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka,YK Sinha, who offered support for Kerala Tourism's promotional activities in the island country.

Leveraging the "Visit Kerala" initiative by Kerala Tourism, Navin Dissanayak has agreed to take up the issue of special fares on flights, operated by Sri Lankan airlines, between Kerala and Colombo.
(IANS)