Mission cells to power responsible tourism in Kerala

Accord­ing to a news art­icle in The Times of India, the Indi­an state’s “ambi­tious” pro­gram aims to gen­er­ate more employ­ment and income in loc­al com­munit­ies without harm­ing the environment.

Under the Mis­sion, respons­ible tour­ism “cells” will be set up in each of Kerala’s 14 dis­tricts by the end of the month, each with “well-defined func­tion­al inde­pend­ence”. The state cell, which will pre­sum­ably coordin­ate activ­it­ies, will be set up immediately.

The Respons­ible Tour­ism Mis­sion will have two activ­ity streams:

1. Field-level activ­it­ies will work with loc­al stake­hold­ers, gov­ern­ment agen­cies, NGOs, research­ers, acedem­ic, and the tour­ism trade.
2. Aca­dem­ic and research activ­it­ies will guide and inform.

Ker­ala Depart­ment of Tour­ism Dir­ect­or P Bala Kir­an said: “The RT Cells will take care of field activ­it­ies while KITTS [the Ker­ala Insti­tute of Tour­ism and Travel Stud­ies] will set up an RT School to handle the aca­dem­ic and know­ledge component.”

Appoin­ted as Dir­ect­or of Tour­ism in March, Kir­an has a track record in pro­gress­ing access­ib­il­ity in Ker­ala.

Vythiri is a pion­eer des­tin­a­tion for respons­ible tour­ism in Ker­ala. Image: KeralaTourism.org

Ker­ala’s Respons­ible Tour­ism Mis­sion will:

• Ini­ti­ate com­munity-level tour­ism activities;
• Cre­ate link­ages between the industry and communities;
• Encour­age adop­tion of respons­ible tour­ism prin­ciples and practices;
• Facil­it­ate respons­ible tour­ism clas­si­fic­a­tion of tour­ism ser­vice providers;
• Pro­mote socially-rel­ev­ant and envir­on­ment-friendly activities;
• Build the capa­cit­ies of host com­munit­ies through training;
• Pro­mote loc­al employ­ment and procurement;
• Con­duct research in spe­cif­ic fields;
• Pro­mote green prin­ciples in con­struc­tion and green pro­to­cols in waste management;
• Facil­it­ate pro­tec­tion and aug­ment­a­tion of loc­al agriculture;
• Empower women and mar­gin­al­ised com­munit­ies; and
• Pro­mote and pro­tect loc­al arts and culture.

Kerala’s proud history of responsible tourism

Ker­ala claims to be the pion­eer of respons­ible tour­ism (RT) in India.

Ker­ala pion­eered respons­ible tour­ism in India accord­ing to Ker­ala Tour­ism. Image source: KeralaTourism.org

“This hol­ist­ic form of tour­ism is help­ing trav­el­lers, the loc­al pop­u­la­tion and the trade derive the greatest pos­sible bene­fits from tour­ism, without caus­ing any eco­lo­gic­al or social dam­age,” accord­ing to the Ker­ala Tour­ism website.

In 2007 the state piloted pro­jects in four des­tin­a­tions — Kovalam, Kumarakom, Thekkady and Vythiri. In 2012, the ini­ti­at­ive was exten­ded to three more des­tin­a­tions — Kum­bal­anghi, Bekal and Ambalavayal.

In 2013  Ker­ala Tour­ism was con­ferred a United Nations World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO) Award for Excel­lence and Innov­a­tion in Tour­ism for its glob­al lead­er­ship in cre­at­ing innov­at­ive ini­ti­at­ives for sus­tain­able tour­ism at Kumarakom.

Fol­low­ing the suc­cess of Kumarakom and the oth­er pion­eer­ing des­tin­a­tions, RT is being imple­men­ted through­out Ker­ala [via the Respons­ible Tour­ism Mis­sion] “with the Ker­ala Insti­tute of Tour­ism and Travel Stud­ies (KITTS) as its nod­al agency”.

Fea­tured image: Kumarakom is a pion­eer des­tin­a­tion for respons­ible tour­ism in Ker­ala. Source: KeralaTourism.org