Ayurveda beckons visitors to Kerala

According to the World Tourism Organization, India had double-digit increases in international tourist arrivals last year, reports Michelle Higgins.

Asia has emerged as one of the fastest growing tourist markets in the world, both for the hard-core adventurer and the upscale vacationer just looking for a nice place to relax.

Exploring Kerala

It is Ayurveda that makes Kerala the new favourite as a travel destination in India.

Kerala, about 400 miles south of Goa along India’s southwestern tip, is emerging as a quiet alternative with its long shorelines, sprawling plantations and soothing spas that specialize in the healing practice of ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine.

“As the spa business globally has exploded, Kerala as the center of this treatment style has been able to take advantage of that,” said Scott Woroch, executive vice president, worldwide development of Four Seasons, which is developing a small resort there.

There are many ayurvedic spas and health centers to choose from. One of the newest is at the Leela Kempinski Kovalam Beach hotel, which opened an 8,000-square-foot spa ayurvedic wellness center last year called Divya with 18 therapists, 4 physicians trained in ayurvedic medicine and an open-air meditation hall.

So far, foreigners make up a small fraction of the visitors to Kerala. For example, 515,808 foreign tourists visited Kerala in 2007, compared with about 6.64 million domestic tourists. Even then, foreign visitors have increased by about 20 percent since the previous year, according to Keralatourism.org.