‘The credit goes to Kerala itself ’

The story behind Kerala’s Responsible Tourism brand that won awards at the World Travel Mart in London this week

November 10, 2018 02:22 pm | Updated 02:23 pm IST

A decade after the Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala adopted Responsible Tourism as the way forward, it has received its strongest endorsement at the recently concluded World Travel Mart, in London, the biggest international tourism event that brings all stakeholders of the industry together. Kerala bagged three World Responsible Tourism Awards 2018 for its Responsible Tourism (RT) initiatives.

A philosophy

“What sets Kerala apart is that as a destination Kerala looked at RT as a philosophy that everyone needed to embrace,” says Dr V Venu, Principal Secretary, Kerala Tourism, and the pioneering bureaucrat who introduced this as formal government policy. Its main tenet is the creation of better places to live in and better places for people to visit, combining in one stroke the goodness of development via tourism.

One of the first, and a stalwart in the hospitality sector, Jose Dominic, Chairman CGHearth whose group’s philosophy is about closeness to the earth began Spice Village in Thekkady in 1991 as an experiment, highlighting the small and the local. The property did away with high energy consuming lifestyle gadget like air conditioners and cut off the getaway from 24 hour television. It also did away with western style dressing of its staff and introduced traditional mundu and sari as gear. Indian, Chinese and Continental food were taken off the menu and local flavours—appam, stew, ela sadya were introduced. The cottages were tribal in feel and design.

“It became the hotel of first choice, the investment was small yet it was able to command prices which were otherwise associated with luxury,” says Jose. He repeated the experiment in the following years at his properties in Kumarakom and Marari, making the small and local a choice for the traveller.

“The DNA of Kerala has been responsible tourism since the beginning. We are in a leadership position now and have received recognition in the category for economic benefit to the local community.”

Another social entrepreneur and a pioneer in RT who brought this philosophy on his plate, knowing little that it would become the byword for the entire State of Kerala and other states of India, Gopinath Parayail, says, “When I began The Blue Yonder in 2004, I decided to take on the responsibility of the state of affairs of the river Nila and wanted to address it. I decided to make tourism a tool to achieve it.” His Nila project that was all about reviving the river by strengthening the communities that live on its banks became an example of how on-the-ground, local-flavoured development is a draw for experiential tourism.

“I very clearly positioned triple bottom line sustainability as the marker. It has three verticals —financial benefit for the local community, a positive socio-cultural impact and a positive environmental impact.”

In 2006 his efforts were recognized at the WTM with his company receiving the Poverty Reduction category award. He organised the first International Conference of Responsible Tourism in Bengaluru.

The second conference held at Kochi in 2008 became a turning point for RT in Kerala.

RT Conferences

The was meet attended by stalwarts from the field, like Dr Anna Pollock, promoter of conscious travel and Dr Harold Goodwin, academician and RT warrior. This resulted in a Kerala Declaration where deliberations over RT were publicly edited. The State Level RT Committee was formed and RT formally taken up by the Department of Tourism. There were four destinations that Kerala began with in 2008 — Kumarakom, Wayanad, Thekkady and Kovalam.

Working around the same time Jayakumar C, an environment expert, revived Kovalam along with others to once again make it a must-see destination. The area that was declared a not-to-go destination was completely changed.

Much as he is pleased with the accolades he cautions, “ Right now Kerala is a huge market leader but the adjective ‘responsible’ is being less addressed. I feel a lot less responsibility is being shown towards the environment and more towards economic benefits. This lopsided growth will not be sustainable. We must be careful of this in the rush to build the brand.”

Rupesh Kumar, State Coordinator RT Mission and a man deserving of the laurels recalls a time when he was frustrated by the unethical and unscientific development that was taking place, prior to 2007. “We began an awareness campaign against such moves,” he says adding, “Kerala RT is no showcase activity. It is a real model that is touching people’s lives meaningfully.”

The award he says is the result of ten years of focused hard work. In 2008, when RT was taken up by the government there was some confusion about the way forward, “as there was no model to follow. We had to create our model.”

In 2009 he along with his department created the village life experience model highlighting rural activities such as like coir making, toddy tapping and coconut tree climbing. “Such activities do not require any investment from local people but each livelihood activity has a package cost that goes to the community member.”

The way forward

Future plans include creating 100 % RT across the State. Thirteen new destinations have been identified. A new initiative of People’s Participation for Participatory Planning is under way and was held at Vaikom at the gramasabha level where common activities like bird sightings and local festivals are being highlighted. “RT calls for an almost ideal situation — better places to live and therefore better places to visit. It is not an easy task but we are doing our best,” says Rupesh.

“RT Mission has managed to create a web of service providers. Now this concept is being adopted institutionally. It belongs to everybody, every stakeholder in the chain,” says Venu.

Jose Dominic puts the success story in a nutshell.

“The ‘red flag perception’ kept investors at bay from Kerala but small entrepreneurs and the government began highlighting the indigenous and the small. It became a feature of Kerala and it became world class. The credit goes to Kerala itself.”

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