Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 6 (IANS): Tourist arrivals in Kerala in the second quarter of 2019 has grown by 14.81 per cent as against the figures of the corresponding period in the previous year, Kerala Tourism said on Tuesday.

Figures released by Kerala Tourism reveal an increase of 639,271 tourists (both domestic and foreign) during April-June this year.

The total number of domestic tourists who visited Kerala during the second quarter of 2019 was recorded at 47,79,739 as compared to 41,49,122 tourists during the same period in 2018. A total of 1,82,320 foreign tourists visited Kerala in second of 2019 as compared to 1,67,666 during the corresponding period a year earlier.

In the first quarter (January-March), the total number of tourist arrivals was 46,12,937 as compared to 43,18,406 during the same period in 2018.

Of the 14 districts in Kerala, Ernakulam registered the highest footfall with an increase of 1.71 lakh, followed by Idukki with 1.35 lakh. The total number of visitors in Ernakulam was 10,70,613 in the second quarter of 2019 as against 8,98,784 in the second quarter of 2018 while the figures for Idukki were 5,27,311 and 3,91,674, respectively.

State Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said the positive growth rate in tourist arrivals was achieved by a string of measures that the state government undertook swiftly to repair the damage caused by the floods to tourism infrastructure.

"We also launched an aggressive marketing strategy in both domestic and foreign markets to bolster our presence in the highly competitive tourism marketplace. The results are now there for everyone to see," he added.

"This clearly indicates that Kerala has now fully overcome the negative trend in arrival of foreign guests, which was largely caused by the floods last year," the minister said.