Thekkady named world’s top emerging destination by PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association)

Thekkady, Kerala's iconic attraction has
been named the world's top emerging
destination. Thekkady is known for its
jaw dropping landscape splattered with
rolling hills, dense forests and spice
plantations. Thekkady won the
inaugural Pacific Asia Travel
Association (PATA) CEO Challenge 2015
along with Albay in the Philippines. The
destination in 'God's Own Country',
which is home to the Periyar Wildlife
Sanctuary, bagged the Top Destination
award in the second and third-tier cities
category, the only category for cities.
Albay received the honour in the
category for regions, states and
provinces. The award, instituted by
PATA, was announced in Bangkok.
Thekkady and Albay beat a large
number of destinations from around the
world to win the award.
The PATA CEO Challenge is aimed at
utilising the 500,000-dollar award purse
to develop and create a digital
marketing campaign to showcase the
destination to a global audience.
Leading global travel site TripAdvisor,
the PATA CEO Challenge 2015 partner,
will provide its expertise to developing
the campaign.
Thekkady, one of the few places in the
world to easily spot a wild elephant, is
one of the destinations in the state
developed by Kerala Tourism as a
model of Responsible Tourism. Situated
on the banks of the Periyar lake,
Thekkady is one of the leading wildlife
destinations in the country.
PATA CEO Challenge 2015 aims to
promote and enhance the number of
visitors to emerging destinations and
enhance tourism development in a
sustainable manner.
Kerala Tourism will receive free stand
space at the PATA Travel Mart 2016 in
Jakarta during September 7-9 next year
and invitation to the PATA Annual
Summit in Guam, United States in May
2016.