THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State tourism department’s digital campaign in 23 languages for the ‘Clint Memorial International Online Painting Competition Season II’ is expected to get around 15000 entries from 70-75 countries.Aimed to catch the attention of international travellers and to increase the traffic to Kerala Tourism’s website, the second season of this online contest for children aged 4-16 years is being organised in a bigger way. “The competition themed on anything related to Kerala will naturally create huge interest among travellers,” said tourism secretary Rani George.The competition is also envisaged as a tribute to child prodigy Edmund Thomas Clint , who was born in Kochi and who made 25,000 pictures before a prolonged illness claimed his life at the age of seven.The competition was first held in 2014, and the result was an enhanced traffic to the website from lesser-known source markets like Bulgaria and Romania . “But we are yet to decide whether to make it an annual programme. Currently, the competition is being held as just another initiative along with various other campaigns to boost tourist arrivals to Kerala,” the tourism secretary added.Entries to the competition can be submitted till December 31, 2018, and 15 participants including 10 from abroad stand chance to win family trips to Kerala. The winners will be selected from the best 2000 pictures to be shortlisted by a committee and to be published on February 15, 2019.Adults (aged above 18 years) can also be a part of the competition as a promoter. Any child joining the competition on the basis of a promoter’s recommendation will be added to his or her credit and those pushing maximum entries can get complimentary tour packages for visiting Kerala.The entry to the competition is free, and the participant is expected to paint a picture manually on paper using crayons, colour pencils or paint and brush or sketch pens. Any picture generated with digital, electronic or mechanical tools will not be accepted for the competition. The picture should then be digitized by any mode and uploaded to the Kerala Tourism contest page (file size not exceeding 5 MB).Though the entrant can register only once, she/he can submit up to five entries, but the painting should be something related to Kerala.

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