Guwahati, Jan. 19: The department of tourism, Kerala government, will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its Assam counterpart to help develop tourism here.

"We are willing to sign an MoU with the Assam tourism department. We can even partner with our counterparts here. Kerala, over the last two decades, has developed its tourism sector and if Assam opens its doors, the corporate players in Kerala can come here (Assam) as well," Kerala tourism deputy director Nandakumar K.P. told The Telegraph here today.

A delegation of Kerala tourism was here today to promote their "Visit Kerala Year" campaign.

"Assam has its greenery, hills and as compared to other northeastern states, has better connectivity. A state should realise its strengths and for both Assam and Kerala, nature is the biggest strength. Assam should also concentrate on preserving its greenery, maintaining infrastructure and promoting tourism rather than setting up industrial plants and machinery," Nandakumar said.

He said Assam has the potential of becoming a tourist hub of India if rightly projected.

While talking about the tourism promotion strategy in Kerala, Nandakumar said, "Our prices are high, but that is because our quality of hospitality is also high. There are some places such as Varkala, Kappil and Kollam which we want to keep confined to the upmarket few. We don't want those to get crowded. For the middle class, we have Kumarakom, Kottayam and others where there are lots of mid-range hotels and resorts."

"April 2015 to April 2016 was selected as 'visit Kerala' year. We have done wide campaigning in Europe, West Asia and the US. This was part of our attempt to promote Kerala as god's own country and it has been a huge success as of now," Nandakumar said.