Tuesday, June 13, 2006

No decision yet on Big B and Aishwarya as brand ambassadors
Kochi, June 13. (PTI): The Kerala Government is yet to take a decision, on whether or not to rope in Bollywood superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai as brand ambassadors to promote the State.
'The matter is under the Government's consideration and no decision has been taken,' official sources said.
Tourism officials have held discussions with both Bachchan and Aishwarya and they have reportedly expressed intrest in the project, the sources said.
Bachchan was recently in Munnar in kerala to shoot for Ram Gopal Varma's 'Nishabd'.
The department's proposal to have Bachchan and Aishwarya was following the huge success of Kerala Tourism commercials featuring Hindi television stars Smriti Irani and Mona Vasu in driving tourists from North Indian states to Kerala.
The commercials were a great hit in popular entertainment channels including Zee,Star Gold, and Star Plus,the sources said.
Hoping to cash on in the popularity of the two big names in the entertainment industry, the tourism officials had drawn up plans to have the two stars as brand ambassadors.
In 2005, the foreign and domestic tourist arrivals to the State were 3.46 lakh and 59.46 lakh respectively. During the current year, the department was targetting a growth of 20 per cent for international tourists and five per cent for the domestic tourists.
The foreign exchange earnings from tourism in the State during 2005 was Rs 1552.31 crore, while the total earnings from tourism during last year was about Rs 7738 crore. "

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