A Responsible Tourism (RT) Mission will be set up in the State as part of Kerala Tourism’s action plan to broad-base RT with the three-pronged strategy of equal focus on economic, social and environmental aspects in all districts.
Enthused by the success of the RT initiative implemented in major tourist destinations such as Kovalam, Kumarakom, Thekkady, and Wayanad, the government announced that RT would be extended to all 14 districts. The proposed tourism policy also gives importance to RT.
The proposal to set up the RT Mission is pending government nod, official sources told The Hindu . However, it is yet to figure in the Working Group on Tourism.
At present, the RT cell in the Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel Studies (KITTS), the nodal agency appointed by Kerala Tourism for execution of the RT, takes care of the activities and coordination with stakeholders in the destinations where it is implemented.
Kumarakom; Thekkady, Ambalavayal and Vythiri in Wayanad, Bekal, Kovalam, and Kumbalanghi are the RT destinations. In addition, it has been executed in 50 of the 112 local bodies selected for implementing the God’s Own Country, People’s Own Tourism project. Among the RT destinations, Kumarakom is the pioneer and winner of the coveted UNWTO Ulysses Award for innovation and public policy in governance under tourism.
RT tourist circuit, RT food festivals, accessible tourism, Nattinpurangalil Onam unnam, Ona sammangal vangam, rural tourism packages, documentation of RT activities, clean Vembanad and Ashtamudi initiatives, RT website, RT classification for various tourism products such as houseboats and homestays, RT cultural forum, resource mapping and RT human resource directory will be rolled out this fiscal.
Besides the acclaim for UNWTO, the response to the RT initiatives from stakeholders, the support from the local people, as it provides them employment and popularity of village life experiences, has resulted in extending RT to more destinations. RT is conceived with three kinds of responsibilities which are termed as the ‘triple bottom-line’ economic, social and environmental responsibility.
