Thekkady, Kerala’s iconic attraction has been named the world’s top emerging destination. Thekkady is known for its jaw dropping landscape splattered with rolling hills, dense forests and spice plantations.  Thekkady won the inaugural Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) CEO Challenge 2015 along with Albay in the Philippines. The destination in ‘God’s Own Country’, which is home to the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, bagged the Top Destination award in the second and third-tier cities category, the only category for cities.

Albay received the honour in the category for regions, states and provinces. The award, instituted by PATA, was announced in Bangkok. Thekkady and Albay beat a large number of destinations from around the world to win the award.

The PATA CEO Challenge is aimed at utilising the 500,000-dollar award purse to develop and create a digital marketing campaign to showcase the destination to a global audience. Leading global travel site TripAdvisor, the PATA CEO Challenge 2015 partner, will provide its expertise to developing the campaign.

Thekkady, one of the few places in the world to easily spot a wild elephant, is one of the destinations in the state developed by Kerala Tourism as a model of Responsible Tourism. Situated on the banks of the Periyar lake, Thekkady is one of the leading wildlife destinations in the country.

PATA CEO Challenge 2015 aims to promote and enhance the number of visitors to emerging destinations and enhance tourism development in a sustainable manner.

Kerala Tourism will receive free stand space at the PATA Travel Mart 2016 in Jakarta during September 7-9 next year and invitation to the PATA Annual Summit in Guam, United States in May 2016.