thiruvananthapuram kerala tourism was bestowed three prestigious pacific asia travel association pata gold awards including one for an ethnic food restaurant run by women at kumarakom under its responsible tourism mission at a glittering function at nursultan astana in kazakhstan on thursday eveningthe awards were received by tourism minister kadakampally surendran and tourism director p bala kiran from maria helena de senna fernandes the director of macau government tourism office and mario hardy the ceo of pata during the pata travel mart 2019 said an official release issued here on fridaythe two other gold awards were for an advertisement campaign of kerala tourism come out and play and for its website wwwkeralatourismorg respectively while the ad campaign was run by stark communication the kerala tourism website has been designed and maintained by invis multimediait is a big honour for kerala tourism and also a strong validation of the states image as an alluring tourist destination i am sure these awards will give a huge traction in showcasing the touristy charms of the state to a wider international audience surendran saidi am particularly happy for receiving the gold award for the womenrun ethnic food restaurant at kumarakom under the responsible tourism mission rtm which has become the mainstay of our tourism policy and initiatives out of the 15500 rtm initiatives 13500 units are led by women the minister addedthe come out and play campaign is an invitation to india to come out of the routine everydayness of urban spaces and the isolation that gadgets induce to connect with each other and nature it offers tourists a wide array of options to rediscover nature by activities such as trekking ayurvedic massage river rafting yoga lessons visiting a spice plantation learning the basics of kerala cuisine climbing a coconut tree and sailing on a houseboat the highlycontested awards selected by an eminent international jury were announced in bangkok in july this years awards attracted 197 entries from 78 organisations and individuals worldwide