Thiruvananthapuram, Thursday, December 16, 2010: The fourth edition of the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF) 2010 has evoked tremendous response all over the State. The shopping extravaganza - Grand Kerala Shopping Festival, is a Government of Kerala initiative. The version-4 of the shopping festival from Dec 1, 2010 to Jan 15, 2011, has turned Kerala in to a big shopping mall. The event has been conceived and organized to give a big leap for the trade and commerce in Kerala.

The State Minister for Home and Tourism, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, has called the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF) a huge success, judging from the overall boost to the trade sector.

The GKSF authorities have asked shoppers to make use of the SMS facility to win attractive prizes by purchasing goods from shops that have become partners of the GKSF. GKSF director K.N. Satheesh said shoppers should SMS the unique code on the coupon given to them from the partner shops. The number is embedded behind the scratch-and- win portion. The unique code should be forwarded as SMS by typing GKSF to 537252.

With the GKSF, the brand image of Kerala Tourism would go a long way to help upgrade the infrastructure of traditional marketing centre in Kerala.

101 kg of gold would be given as prize to those who made purchases at shops registered for the festival. The first prize of 1 kg of gold will be given to three winners each. Six winners each will get the second prize of half-a-kg of gold.

The GKSF 2010-11 is one of the largest shopping festivals organised by Kerala Tourism with the mission of converting it into an international shopping festival similar to the Dubai and the Singapore shopping festivals.