Thiruvananthapuram, Monday 01 December2008: The festival will begin on 1 December and go on till 15 January 2009. The second edition of the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival will begin today. The festival is being coordinated jointly by the various state departments of tourism, industries and commerce, finance, local self-government and civil supplies, along with the traders and manufacturers in the state.

The government of Kerala has pitched Rs20 crore for the activity. The vision of GKSF is to make Kerala an international shopping destination over a period of five years and to develop the Festival in the scale of Dubai/ Malaysian shopping festivals.

The government aims to utilise the growth in the tourism sector to develop the state as an international trade and tourism destination. As compared to shopping festivals being held in other countries, GKSF converts the entire state of Kerala into a giant shopping mall, incorporating not just the big players, but also the small and medium scale industries in the state.”