Data story · Kerala · 6 min read
Kerala has more visitors than ever. Few of them go north.
Official figures show record domestic travel, a slow foreign recovery and a Theyyam heartland that barely registers in the count.
5.1%
of Kerala's domestic visits went to Kannur and Kasaragod in 2024
1,142,551 of 22,246,989
0.9%
of its foreign visits did
6,424 of 738,374
42×
Ernakulam's foreign visits compared with the two northern districts combined
268,614 vs 6,424
Kerala recorded 22.2 million domestic and 738,374 foreign tourist visits in 2024, according to Kerala Tourism. Both are far above the pandemic lows, and the domestic count is 21% above 2019.
Where the visits go
Ernakulam, home to Kochi, recorded 4.33 million domestic visits. Thiruvananthapuram and Idukki each recorded more than 3.8 million. Kannur logged 857,686 and Kasaragod 284,865, the lowest of Kerala’s fourteen districts. Together they account for 5.1% of domestic visits.
Most of Kerala's visitors never reach the north
Domestic tourist visits by district, 2024
- Kannur and Kasaragod (Theyyam heartland)
- Other districts
View as table
| District | Domestic visits | Foreign visits |
|---|---|---|
| Ernakulam | 4,329,536 | 268,614 |
| Thiruvananthapuram | 3,921,054 | 171,095 |
| Idukki | 3,830,186 | 136,883 |
| Thrissur | 2,775,175 | 18,700 |
| Kozhikode | 1,334,089 | 14,224 |
| Wayanad | 1,288,135 | 3,955 |
| Kannur | 857,686 | 2,649 |
| Malappuram | 823,026 | 11,449 |
| Alappuzha | 705,993 | 46,470 |
| Palakkad | 613,025 | 1,459 |
| Kottayam | 609,752 | 49,318 |
| Kollam | 488,167 | 9,048 |
| Pathanamthitta | 386,300 | 735 |
| Kasaragod | 284,865 | 3,775 |
Foreign travellers barely register
The gap is starker for visitors from abroad. Kannur recorded 2,649 foreign visits in 2024 and Kasaragod 3,775: 6,424 combined, or 0.9% of Kerala’s 738,374. Ernakulam alone recorded 268,614, about 42 times as many.
A slow recovery
Domestic visits passed their 2019 level in 2022 and have kept climbing. Foreign visits have not: at 738,374 they stand at 62% of the 1,189,771 recorded in 2019.
Domestic travel has surged. Foreign visits are still 38% short.
Tourist visits to Kerala, indexed so that 2019 = 100
- Domestic visits
- Foreign visits
View as table
| Year | Domestic visits | Domestic index | Foreign visits | Foreign index |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 18,384,233 | 100 | 1,189,771 | 100 |
| 2020 | 4,988,972 | 27 | 340,755 | 29 |
| 2021 | 7,537,617 | 41 | 60,487 | 5 |
| 2022 | 18,867,414 | 103 | 345,549 | 29 |
| 2023 | 21,871,641 | 119 | 649,057 | 55 |
| 2024 | 22,246,989 | 121 | 738,374 | 62 |
The season, and the rain
Theyyam runs through the dry months in Kannur, from late October to the end of May.
The Theyyam season follows the dry months
Modelled average monthly rainfall in Kannur (mm), June to May
- In the season
- Season starts or ends
- Outside the season
View as table
| Month | Rainfall (mm) | Theyyam season |
|---|---|---|
| June | 615 | Outside |
| July | 555 | Outside |
| August | 362 | Outside |
| September | 210 | Outside |
| October | 230 | Starts or ends |
| November | 75 | In season |
| December | 19 | In season |
| January | 5 | In season |
| February | 4 | In season |
| March | 21 | In season |
| April | 83 | In season |
| May | 231 | Starts or ends |
What the numbers can’t tell us
These are counts of visits, gathered district by district. They say nothing about why people choose where they go. Theyyam is seasonal, village-based and often unticketed, so it may be poorly captured by a count built around hotels and paid sites. That is a hypothesis, not a finding, and it is something we are now reporting on.
If you run a kavu, a homestay or a guide service in Kannur or Kasaragod, tell us what you see.
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