The Kerala Tourism Facebook page has secured the first place among FB tourism pages of all states across the country in 2017.
The Kerala page, which has garnered 1.5 million likes, secured first place in a ranking done by Facebook based on total engagement with tourists that included reactions, shares and comments from January 1 and December 31, 2017, of various state government's Facebook tourism pages in the country.
The Kerala Tourism page pushed the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism department's Facebook page to the second place, while Gujarat's page came third. The list was released by Facebook on Wednesday.
Rani George, Secretary, Tourism, said Kerala Tourism has been able to successfully convey the reasons why Kerala is a destination that should be on every traveller's itinerary. "The department's presence on social media has taken this message across to millions across the world." She added that Facebook's laurel this was heartening.
Tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran lauded the entire social media team for their efforts. P Bala Kiran, Kerala Tourism Director, accepted the award at the Facebook office in Delhi. The recognition comes at a time when the State Tourism Department's digital marketing budget has been increased by 15 percent.
The recognition for the FB page came on the same day as the department's tweet inviting Karnataka MLAs to relax in Kerala's resorts after the "rough and tumble" of the elections. The tweet, which took an obvious dig at the 'resort politics' in Karnataka elections, was later pulled out following backlash from users.