AS the rains engulf Kerala with the annual dose of wetness and luxuriance, the weathermen may be tearing their hair out, wondering if this year's monsoon rainfall will match their predictions, but one class of people will be celebrating the drops of seasonal precipitation - tour and travel operators and, of course, their clients, the tourists from within and beyond the country, who come to savour the delights of God's Own Country.
They are coming at a time, as Kerala Tourism is now energetically pointing out, "when the heavens touch the earth." Yes, it is that magical time of year when the southwest monsoon casts its spell over the land of coconuts for three months. And, increasingly, visitors from outside the State are learning to enjoy the special treats that accompany the monsoon.
And these range from the mundane, like shopping for a range of umbrellas to simply sipping tea and watching the boatmen ferry across the backwaters to the adventurous, like trekking in the western Ghats for some diehard nature-watching. But these days, what is really bringing the smiles to the faces of Kerala's tourism professionals are the beelines for Kerala's ayurvedic health centres.
Traditionally, according to ayurvedic physicians, rejuvenation therapies have their best effect during the wet monsoon months, when the winds and the cold temperature render the body especially amenable to the therapeutic and restorative powers of the herbs and concoctions used in ayurveda. That is why upcountry visitors throng Kerala's ayurveda spas during the rainy months.
Yes, the natural synergy between the monsoon and ayurveda is finally stretching the traditional tourism season in Kerala, so much so that today the State's hoteliers can boast that there is no off-season in Kerala, just a peak season and the green season. Kerala, it appears, is well on the way to perfecting "monsoon tourism."