Kerala Tourism presented with Pacific Asia Travel Association - PATA Gold Award 2024 for its online contest Holiday Heist

At a ceremony in Bangkok on Wednesday, Kerala Tourism was given the highly regarded Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award 2024 for their online competition, "Holiday Heist," which falls under the Digital Marketing Campaign category. At a ceremony conducted at PATA Travel Mart 2024 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre (QSNCC) in the capital of Thailand, Tourism Director Sikha Surendran accepted the prize. The Macao Government Tourism Office's Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes and PATA CEO Noor Ahmad Hamid were present as PATA Chair Peter Semone gave out the prize.

Kerala Tourism was the only Indian travel destination to get the PATA Gold award this year. Launched in July 2023, "Holiday Heist" is a month-long innovative campaign designed to attract visitors through an exciting and entertaining bidding game on the Tourism department's WhatsApp chatbot Maya. Travellers placed very modest bids to visit Kerala's breathtaking locations, and it quickly became a huge hit. Over 80,000 bids, 5.2 lakh interactions, 45 million impressions, and 13 million video views have all been recorded for the campaign.

The "lowest unique bidding" idea served as the focal point of the month-long campaign, which tasked participants with securing trip packages with the lowest and most original bids. Some players won travel packages at over ₹30,000 for just ₹5 thanks to their clever bids. The PATA Grand and Gold Awards were established in 1984 to honour the most outstanding achievements made by the travel industry in the Asia-Pacific area. The winning projects continuously set the standard for quality and innovation.