The world's cheapest new car, a four-seater hatchback with a 100,000 rupees price tag (US$2,500, £1,250), was unveiled in India today. Tata Motors's much anticipated Nano - cheaper than some CD stereo systems in a top-end Mercedes - will bring car ownership into the reach of tens of millions of people across the world. Despite the secrecy surrounding today's grand unveiling in Delhi, there had been glimpses into the design of the four-seater that has a top speed of 75 miles an hour and is held together more with strong glue than nuts and bolts.

While the price has created a buzz, critics say the rear-engine mounted vehicle will lead to millions more cars hitting already clogged Indian roads, adding to mounting air and noise pollution problems. Others have said Tata will have to sacrifice quality and safety standards to meet the target price. Tata says the car will conform to European standards but there remains scepticism in the market about its safety and its ability to maintain assembly-line emission outputs after being driven on India's congested and crumbling roads. An initial production run of 250,000 cars a year, or nearly a quarter of all annual car sales in India, has sent environmentalists into a spin. The United Nations's chief climate scientist, Rajendra Pachauri, the winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, said last month that he was "having nightmares" about the prospect of the low-cost car.

The focus on the domestic market, especially on non-traditional markets, helped drive the growth in domestic tourist arrivals. In 2008, for the first time in over a decade, domestic tourist arrivals to Kerala registered two-digit growth. According to figures released by Kerala Tourism, a little over 75.91 lakh domestic tourists visited the State last year, which was a growth of 14.28 per cent compared to 2007. In 2007, a little over 66.42 lakh domestic tourists visited Kerala. Foreign tourist arrivals also grew — by a healthy 16.11 per cent — last year, with just over 5.98 lakh foreigners visiting Kerala.

Mr M. Sivasankar, Director, Kerala Tourism, told Business Line that one reason for the spurt in domestic tourist arrivals last year was Kerala Tourism’s growing focus on promotional activity within the country. Last year, Kerala Tourism held road shows in 10 Indian cities, including new markets such as Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Baroda and Pune. This focus on the domestic market, especially on non-traditional markets, helped drive the growth in domestic tourist arrivals, he said.

Dream Season: The ‘Dream Season’ campaign, which offered attractively priced holiday packages, proved to be popular with domestic tourists, Mr Sivasankar said. A similar effect was created by the ‘Dream Weekend’ initiative that promoted weekend breaks in Kerala. This campaign was promoted extensively on non-traditional media platforms such as FM radio, he added. In fact, non-traditional media platforms are set to become an important part of Kerala Tourism’s promotional strategy. The use of new media needs to be increased to take the Kerala Tourism brand to the new, tech-savvy consumer, Mr Sivasankar said. Similarly, Kerala Tourism has realised that it needs to connect to people living in smaller Indian cities. So it is holding road shows in 13 cities, including new locations such as Nagpur and Jalandhar, this year, he said. In revenue terms too, 2008 appears to have been a good year for Kerala’s tourism industry. According to Kerala Tourism, the total revenue, both direct and indirect, generated by the State’s tourism sector in 2008 was Rs 13,130 crore. This is a 14.84 per cent increase over total revenues in 2007. Similarly, Kerala’s foreign exchange earnings from tourism in 2008 grew by 16.11 per cent to touch Rs 3,066.52 crore.