The off-season, the silent period between April and October when the state’s highly poeticised hillstations, backwaters and beaches hold no charm for tourists, has come alive for the tourism industry for the second consecutive year. From last year, the off-season has been decked up and sold as 'Dream Season'.The 'marketing botox' was an attempt to drive price-conscious domestic tourists to the premium brand called Kerala during the offseason and transform Kerala into a 365-day destination.`Dream Season’ has used the hugely popular and user-friendly Kerala Tourism website to whip up interest. The Tourism Department had asked industry players - hotels, resorts, houseboat service providers, homestays and tour operators - to make cost-effective packages and upload it on the Kerala Tourism website. This facility will be available to all stakeholders, free of charge, on registration.All the packages will be grouped under the `Dream Season in God’s Own Country’ mother package, for which a micro-site www.keralatourism. org/dreamseason has been created within the Kerala Tourism website."The objective is to provide a value-for-money proposition to the domestic tourist during this period and drive traffic to the area.There is a general perception that the hotel rates in the state are on the high side," Tourism Director M Shivshankar said.The Director, however, does not subscribe to the view that a premium brand like Kerala is being dumbed down to attract more tourists."It is not like that. What constitutes value-formoney for a foreign tourist will not be so for a domestic tourist. Kerala’s premium charges are fine with a foreign tourist.For a domestic tourist, say a family from Ahmedabad, flying to Singapore or Malaysia or Maldives is cheaper than flying to Kerala. Apart from the high airfare, he has to shell out another Rs 10,000 as tax. So, to remain competitive, we need to cut down in certain areas," he said.The industry’s response to the initiative has been positive. Already, 200 tour packages, most of them in the Rs 4500-6000 range for a two day/two nights stay, by 150- odd private players have been put up in the microsite.Those who have not been part of the initiative last year are especially interested."Last year many in the industry had asked me to join. There was a fair increase in occupancy rates. This time I don’t want to be left out," Suresh Mathew of Ecogreen Homestay, Chalakkudy