Thiruvananthapuram: State tourism department has pointed out ‘unrest due to Sabarimala issue’ as a possible reason for the continued negative growth in domestic tourist arrivals to Thiruvananthapuram , even after the other districts were able to recover from the downward trend triggered by Nipah virus outbreak and the August floods.In Thiruvananthapuram, where the domestic tourist footfall is usually maximum after Ernakulam, the arrival growth in December 2018 was -7.1% compared with the figures in December 2017 (19,669 visitors fewer) making a significant dent in the overall growth Thiruvananthapuram would have achieved otherwise in 2018.In fact, the highest growth in number of domestic tourists in 2018 was recorded in Thiruvananthapuram district with an increase of about 2 lakh domestic tourists added to the previous year figures (from 25,05333 to 27,12381). One of the main reasons is the increased inflow of pilgrim tourists to the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, according to the research wing of the department.However, the growth rate of domestic tourists to Thiruvananthapuram showed a negative trend from September, which continued up to December, and the reason for the slump may be due to the unrest caused by the Sabarimala issue, the research wing said.Besides, a similar trend of negative growth was noticed in Thrissur district, famed for its Guruvayur destination, from August to December. Thrissur, in fact was the only district, which registered an overall negative growth in domestic tourism in 2018 (-5.5%) and had around 1.5 lakh fewer domestic tourists compared to 2017.Overall, around 156 lakh tourists visited Kerala during 2018, which was 9.3 lakh more compared with the previous year, helping the sector attain a growth of 6.35%. This was despite many adverse factors like Nipah virus attack, floods, Sabarimala issue and related hartals, the research wing pointed out.The growth rate of domestic tourist arrival during year 2017 was 11.39 %, and it was around 20% till May 2018. But in June the growth rate showed a sudden dip due to Nipah virus attack, and then from August to November the figures went negative due to floods and post flood situations. And, the month of December registered a positive growth of 0.45% which revealed that the domestic tourism inflow to the state was getting back to normal.Though the hilly district of Idukki and Wayanad registered a lower growth rate (as the Nipah attack affected Wayanad tourism the most and the floods hit both Wayanad and Idukki), Alappuzha, Kozhikode and Kannur registered a positive growth in domestic tourism with an increase of about 78,000, 1,20,000 and 72,000 tourists respectively.Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu topped the source markets list for Kerala sending out 13.79 lakh tourists, and Karnataka was second with 10 lakh tourists. Maharashtra held the third position with 5.79 lakh tourists and Andhra Pradesh in the fourth position contributing 2.81 lakh outbound visitors to Kerala.

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