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The war for virtual Kerala

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

A web war is on between the Kerala tourism department and a private software company in catching the attention of tourists looking for information on the state.

The sites also have similar names. While the private site is known as keralatourism.com, the official site is keralatourism.org.

The private site, hosted by Rich International (India) Private Limited and promoted by a US-based non-resident Indian, has an upper hand in the ongoing battle, since the site it now holds was the official site of the tourism department. While it already has an established clientele, the tourism department is struggling hard to bring back its old clients and bring back new customers lured away by the new entity.

Both sites have been enriching content regularly though the tourism department has the advantage since there are official constraints on it.

The war is not confined to the web alone. The two have been daggers drawn over the original site, which the tourism department lost due to some flaws in the agreement they signed with Rich International in November 1997.

While commissioning the firm for hosting the site, the department did not make any provision regarding the title. The private firm registered the title in its name and refused to pass it on to the department after the agreement became defunct because the tourism department allegedly violated the contract.

Rich International chief executive Roy C Valsalan said he decided to continue the site independently when the department refused to clear his dues without giving him any reason for it.

He told rediff.com that he had refused to part with the title after his efforts to persuade department director Dr. V Venu to honour the agreement that his predecessor had signed with Rich International and to clear the pending dues.

"Dr Venu was not even willing to give an appointment to discuss the matter. Under the circumstances, I was not obliged to transfer the title", Roy said.

By then the department had already begun putting material on keralatourism.org. Roy said the contract for hosting the site was given to one M/s Invis Multimedia without tenders being invited.

An advertisement inviting agencies to host the site appeared in newspapers about six months after Invis Multimedia was given the contract.

Several firms, including Rich International, which responded to the advertisement, received no reply from the tourism department.

Roy says the department may have become hostile because it wanted to favour M/s Invis Multimedia.

Mr. Roy said the tourism director had also begun a campaign vilifying him. He said that Dr Venu had sent letters to many of his clients asking them to discontinue their dealings with the Rich International and help the tourism department to fight it.

He alleged that the tourism director had even described him as a rogue in these letters.

"I did not expect such an indecent behaviour from a senior IAS officer like Dr Venu, who heads a department involving liasing with various agencies," Roy said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Roy claimed that his site on tourism has been selected by many, including National Geographic and PC World, for its attractive and informative content.

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