Kerala witnessed 10.94 per cent increase in tourist arrivals in 2017, at 157.65 lakh visitors, both domestic and foreign, compared to the previous year.
In 2016, the state had hosted 142.10 lakh travellers, Kerala Tourism said in a release issued here said.
"The statistics show up encouraging trends in terms of increasing footfalls both in the international as well as domestic segments. The domestic tourism circuit has shown laudable numbers, and it is heartening that 2017, recorded the highest number of domestic tourism arrivals in the past nine-year period," Kerala Minister for Tourism, Cooperation and Devaswoms, Kadakampally Surendran said.
The southern state saw an increase of 15 lakh new domestic tourists in 2017, with footfalls going up to 146.73 lakh against 131.72 lakh in 2016.
Kerala saw as many as 10.91 lakh foreign travellers arriving in the state compared to 10.38 lakh visitors in in 2016, according to statistics compiled by Kerala Tourism.
Kerala Tourism Secretary Rani George said, "the trend in tourist arrivals over the past 5 years has shown a marked change in the pattern of tourist visits to different destinations. It is exciting that more destinations are being sought after by tourists, and that shows more destinations in Kerala are gaining in prominence in travellers' minds.
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Kochi, the commercial capital, was the most popular among both domestic as well as foreign tourists witnessing a total number of 23,05,627 footfalls.
Meanwhile, the adjacent destinations such as Fort Kochi (2,02,535) and Maradu (98,047) also registered significant rise in domestic footfalls.
The temple town of Guruvayur was second most popular after Kochi for domestic tourists, while Thiruvananthapuram came third.
Munnar recorded a growth of 34.31 per cent in footfalls with 6.28 lakh travellers to the hill station compared to the previous year.
When it came to foreign tourists, Kovalam was the second most popular destination in Kerala after Kochi followed by Varkala, Fort Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, it added.