Despite the increasing number of COVId cases in the state, the Kerala Tourism Minister P A Mohammed Riyas on Sunday said that the state is set to reopen all the major tourist destinations from Monday and they will be fully functioning hereafter. As foreign tourists are not likely to visit the state due to the fear of Covid, Kerala decided to promote domestic tourism by allowing all tourists who have received at least one dose of vaccine. He said the step was being taken as due to the pandemic, from March 2020 till December 2020 the tourism sector suffered a loss of over ₹3,000 crore and foreign exchange earnings went down by ₹7,000 crore. He further added that the number of domestic and foreign tourists had also gone down drastically in the state.

"In the tourism sector alone, due to Covid, a loss of Rs 3,300 crore was suffered from March to December 2020 alone. Through this, the decline in foreign exchange reserves is Rs 7,000 crore. If 13 crore domestic tourists had reached Kerala in 2016, it dropped to 45 lakh in 2020," the minister said.

The minister also announced that this year's Onam celebrations will be made online by the department of tourism with the idea of a global Onapookkalam and an online Onapookkalam (flower arrangement) competition, organized for the Malayalees all over the world. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the online Onapookkalam competition on August 14. Online registrations for the same will commence from August 10, he added.