The southern state of Kerala has emerged as the most searched tourist destination in India as per the Google's search trends for this year, surpassing the famous Taj Mahal in Uttar Pradesh.

The state's 'Munnar' hill station on the Western Ghats is also among the top ten Indian destinations on Google's Zeitgeist site that shows online search trends on the search engine. The Google's Zeitgeist site shows search trends from around the world.

According to a new media release by the state's tourist department, Kerala has topped the list, ahead of Taj Mahal at number two position, followed by Wagah Border in Punjab, Vaishno Devi shrine and Amarnath temple, which are both in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The search trends also showed that Munnar was on the ninth position in the travel category followed by Mumbai's Gateway of India.

Kerala tourism minister AP Anil Kumar said that the two listings for the state, including the number one spot is an encouragement for the state. "Kerala Tourism is a leader in online promotional activities for the state. We are one of the first government establishments to make use of the internet to reach out to the world," he said.