The event is being organised by the Association of Tourism Trade Organisations, India (ATTOI).

Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor said one of the most important uses of the web for tourism business is review and response to customer feedback which is increasingly influencing travellers' decisions.

"The real danger from the web is that it is an unmediated platform. Opinions can easily be doctored or manufactured. The best way to counter fake reviews is to put out correct information; alert hoteliers and destination managers must come up with quick responses," he said.

State Tourism Minister A P Anil Kumar said the Kerala has had a long standing policy of utilising the Internet for tourism promotion.

"Our marketing strategy based on the Internet is headed the right way. IT has not just complemented our promotional activities, but has helped reduce expenditure and significantly lowered our consumption of print products," Kumar said.

State's Tourism Secretary Suman Billa made a presentation on Kerala Tourism's initiatives in IT over the past few years.

Some milestones over this period include 8.5 million visitors annually for the official Kerala Tourism website which also became the highest ranked web page on Google beating the likes of Taj Mahal; more than 3 lakh likes on the official Facebook page in the past three months alone and over 25,000 visitors to the Ayurveda blog in just three months.

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