SAARC Nations in Kerala Tourism’s Crafts Festival

KERALA TOURISM NEWSLETTER

ISSUE: 267

NOVEMBER 2015

An array of ethnic items and artists from nations of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will feature at the International Handicrafts Exhibition in Malabar towards the end of this year. The exhibition will be a run-up to the ninth edition of the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF).

Expert artisans from all the eight nations of SAARC will participate in the 18-day exhibition hosted by Kerala Tourism, which will commence at Sargaalaya, Iringal in Kozhikode district from December 20.

Sargaalaya, founded in 2011 is a pioneering initiative of Kerala Tourism, managed by an eight-decade-old construction society on a 20-acre campus near Vadakara. The campus has 90 artists housed in 27 huts, where they give shape to 60-plus varieties of pan-Indian crafts.

"The External Affairs Ministry will bring in artists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan to the Sargaalaya Iringal International Crafts Festival, which will have the participation of the United Nations as well," said Mr. G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, Secretary, Kerala Tourism.

GKSF is an annual shopping event, which Kerala Tourism conducts in co-ordination with the State's departments of Industries and Commerce, Finance and Local Self-Government with the aim of transforming God’s Own Country into a hub of international shopping experience and for upgrading its traditional marketing infrastructure.