Kerala pips Taj Mahal in travel search trends

Google's search trends for 2012 have revealed Kerala has come in ahead of the Taj Mahal to be named India's most searched for travel destination.

Kerala, otherwise known as 'God's own country' took over the title of the country's most searched for travel destination, with its hill station on the Western Ghats 'Munnar' also mentioned on Google's Zeitgeist site.

Kerala Tourism Minister AP Anil Kumar deemed this a "great encouragement" for the state.

"Kerala is a leader in online promotional activities in tourism. We are one of the first government establishments to make use of the internet to reach out to the world," he said.

The Tourism Secretary Suman Billa also mentioned how Kerala uses social networking sites to engage with online users.

The popular travel destination attracts more than 250,000 visitors to its official Kerala Tourism website monthly and its YouTube account sees around six million views annually.

Google's Zeitgeist website provides information about what was most searched worldwide over the space of a year.