Thiruvananthapuram: The state tourism department is leveraging on the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) to attract art-loving tourists to Kerala, through a series of roadshows in Europe.The KMB, a four-month-long festival of visual arts, was the flagship product showcased in the first-of-a-series of such roadshows held a week ago in Europe. A three-minute film on the contemporary art event evoked enthusiastic responses in Barcelona (Spain), Prague (Czech Republic), St Petersburg (Russia) and Kiev (Ukraine)."The roadshows will help showcasing Kerala's heritage and traditions to a wider number of travellers," said tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran. The KMB would be an alluring product for the new-age traveller as well as art cognoscenti from both India and abroad, he added.Tourism principal secretary Venu V said the roadshows got a rousing response in Barcelona and St Petersburg. "Kerala has been a popular destination for ayurveda and traditional healing, and now we want to promote it as an art destination," he noted.Venu, who led the delegation to Barcelona and St Petersburg, said people in the two European cities had heard about KMB. Incidentally, Kerala has been a favourite among the Russian tourists and the state was the seventh biggest originating market with 32,726 arrivals registered in 2015.Spain is another country where Kerala is being aggressively promoted. The registered arrivals from Spain to Kerala were 14,187 during 2015. Over 71 buyers attended the show in Barcelona, 70 in Prague and 80 in St Petersburg. Most of the tour operators in these cities said they would include the KMB in their itinerary.Go Kerala contest was also held with the winner getting free holiday packages with flight tickets and accommodation facilities.

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