Second Edition of Kerala Blog Express flagged off

Thiruvananthapuram, March 3 (IANS) Kerala Blog Express 2.0, the second edition of the campaign promoted by Kerala Tourism to enable some of the world's foremost online travel writers to explore the state, was flagged off here on Tuesday.

The Kerala Blog Express bus takes selected, ace bloggers from around the world on a two-week road trip across God's Own Country to discover the beauty of the region and experience its unique culture.

First organised in 2013- 2014, the campaign was a huge success and drew very positive response from the participants, according to Kerala Tourism additional director T.V. Anupama.

Kerala Tourism, known for its innovative and creative promotions, is the first tourism board in India to organise an event of this kind with the aim of reaching out to a wide international audience.

Thirty travel bloggers/photographers/writers are taking part in the second edition of the Kerala Blog Express.

"Numerous promotional schemes like Google ads, Facebook ads and blogger outreach activities are employed for reaching out to the travel blogger community," Anupama told reporters here.

Among this year's participants which include two Indians, three each are from Spain and Italy, two each from the United States, Poland, United Kingdom, Philippines and a participant each from Brazil, Slovakia, Hungary, Finland, Uruguay, Mexico, Czech Republic, Greece, Israel, France, Indonesia, South Africa, New Zealand and Bulgaria.

In the course of the maiden Kerala Blog Express, the campaign micro site (http://keralablogexpress.com/) recorded 2.5 lakh page views from all over the world.

Their pictures, descriptions and experience of God's Own Country were seen by more than two million people and more than 250 blog posts have been written.

Kerala Tourism is partnering with the best hotels in the state so that the participants and crew get the best in-class accommodation during the trip.