Fifth edition of this triumphant campaign to kick start in March 2018
INVC NEWS
The Tourism Department of Kerala has commenced the registration process for the fifth edition of ‘Kerala Blog Express (KBE)’. Willing bloggers have already started promoting their Kerala Blog Express profiles on social media in order to get maximum votes by their followers by January 2018. The Kerala Blog Express trip would get underway in March.
The selection process is in such a way that the submission forms uploaded by the bloggers from around the world would be reviewed by a panel. Post approval, the bloggers’ profiles would be up for voting. As soon as the bloggers get approval, they could share their Kerala Blog Express profiles among friends and followers to seek votes in their favor. Post evaluation by a panel of judges, names of final participants of ‘Kerala Blog Express 5’ would be announced.
Speaking about the key highlights of the initiative, Mr. P. Bala Kiran, IAS, Director, Kerala Tourism stated, “Encouraged by the success of the previous edition of Kerala Blog Express, we are optimistic to receive the maximum number of entries this year. The tourism department has made this initiative unique by combining various aspects such as campaign on social media, familiarization trip, bloggers’ meet and road trip in a major way.”
Highlighting the uniqueness of the initiative, Shri Kadakampally Surendran, Honorable Minister for Co-Operation, Tourism and Devaswom, Government of Kerala said, “Unlike other initiatives undertaken by Kerala Tourism, all previous editions of the Kerala Blog Express have received tremendous response for its uniqueness. With ‘The Trip of a Lifetime’ tag, the Kerala Blog Express brings together travel bloggers from across the globe and provides them with the opportunity of visiting the state on a two-week long road trip. They would also get the chance of documenting their journey, while promoting the state tourism.”
Smt. Rani George, IAS, Secretary, Tourism & Culture, Government of Kerala stated, “Following the robust plan for destination marketing, Kerala Tourism had organized four editions of this unique initiative. All the previous editions have attracted over 100 brand ambassadors who have blogged about the picturesque destinations of the state. Over the last five years, Kerala Tourism has received over 5,000 entries for this initiative.”
Kerala Blog Express 3 had won the Bronze for Social Media (Outreach) at the ABBY AWARDS 2016 held at the GOAFEST 2016. The fourth edition of KBE had witnessed as many as 29 bloggers from 23 countries being picked by a voting system that garnered 38,000 votes online. The trip for the fourth edition was flagged off from Kochi, covering the hills, beaches, backwaters, villages and various city life experiences and ended in Thiruvananthapuram.
