Ms Fadilah Al Sabah, one of the new breed of business entrepreneurs from the middle east was interviewed during her visit to Kerala, which she calls a ?gift of God?.

Prior to her present job as the busy manager of various business establishments and shops spread over Kuwait and Cairo in Egypt, she did her graduation in law and worked as prosecutor for a period of time. She is a member of the Royal Family of Kuwait .

She has visited India twice before on business trips (Delhi and Mumbai). As a matter of fact, she even owns and manages an outlet that showcases purely Indian products in Cairo- The Indian Heritage Shop.

Her first visit to Kerala though, is purely for pleasure. She plans to under go a fourteen-day course of Ayurvedic treatment here.

She agrees with the much publicised refrain that Kerala is Gods Own Country. She was most impressed by the curving beaches, quiet backwaters, and the lush green tea plantations that carpet the Western Ghats among all the other natural attractions that Kerala is gifted with. Among all the other places she has visited, she believes that Kerala has a much larger variety of attractions in such a small area than any other.

She also stated that Ayurvedic treatment was effective as well as body-friendly and has an immense but largely untapped market in the Arab world. The potential that Kerala has to be developed as a world-class tourist destination is easily noticeable but she believes the authorities need to take measures to improve basic services.

She feels that more emphasis should be given to develop basic infrastructure like roads and bridges, as without this, no tourism will flourish. Steps should be taken to develop tourist circuits connecting different sites of interest to each other so that less time is spent in transit and also to develop first-class accommodation- on par with that available in other countries.