For a safety mantra

There is a crying need to strengthen security for tourists lest the State loses a lucrative market

May 12, 2018 09:11 pm | Updated May 13, 2018 02:55 pm IST - S. Anil Radhakrishnan

Illustration for The Hindu

Illustration for The Hindu

The State government and its tourism mandarins must be thanking their stars for the way the mysterious death of a Latvian guest to the State got consigned to flames without too much of a collateral damage. The police have blamed her death on two local residents, accusing them of having raped and murdered her. What would have been a terrible blow to the State’s tourism sector has ended without much harm, but questions remain: about the way she died or was killed and, more importantly perhaps, about how serious has been the State’s efforts to ensure the safety of tourists arriving every year in Kerala.

Kerala has, indeed, emerged as a world-class destination with a handful of niche tourism products and generating ₹26,000.33 crore revenue last year from the tourism sector, but when its comes to the finer points such as safety and security of the holidayers, it seems that the State has left much to be desired. Be it the estuary or beaches of Kovalam, Varkala, Cherai and Bekal, the country’s lone drive-in-beach at Muzhapilangad, the backwaters, the hill stations or the many lesser known tourist destinations in the State, safety of the tourists is something that has gone largely overlooked. If, at the primary level, this is about the need to shield the tourists from fatal accidents in the normal course of their sojourn, it is, at a higher level, about keeping them out of harm’s way in many other senses.

True, the State Tourism Department and the State police displayed great alacrity in comforting and instilling confidence in the Latvian woman’s sister who, along with the deceased woman’s friend, moved heaven and earth to see that her sister’s death was properly investigated. But that hardly pushes the issue of security out of focus. Go to the basics. One of Kerala’s prime tourism products is the houseboat. There are roughly 500-700 of them. But, believe it or not, life jackets, warning signages and consistently followed drills on safety precautions to be followed are yet to fall in place in the case of the much-sought-after leisure safaris and speedboat forays. Support services are also lacking in such key segments as adventure tourism, which has begun to get a significantly high patronage in recent times. Crisis management is a term that is yet to sink in and none of the tourist destinations in the State has a well laid down crisis management protocol to tackle accidents and emergencies.

Tourism police

Physical or verbal abuse by anti-social elements, vigilante attacks, moral policing, pestering by touts, hawkers, drug peddlers and auto and taxi drivers continue to plague the visitors. Touts and those indulging in illegal activities in and around tourist destinations thrive. And, given the political backing they enjoy, the police are reluctant to book them. Most of the travellers prefer not to lodge any complaint with the police as they do not wish to spoil their holidays by intrusive investigations by the law enforcers and retaliation from the trouble-makers. Their only shield of protection is the 180-member strong Tourism Police, the lifeguards of Kerala Tourism deployed on key beaches and the private lifeguards and security personnel at private properties. Although 30 senior civil police officers and 150 civil police officers have been designated as members of the Tourism Police contingent, their contribution to the safety project has been far from praiseworthy.

Way back in 2009, the Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry (CKTI) had pointed out to the then government the imperative need to implement safety measures at all tourist destination matching infrastructure development projects then under way. However, little attention was paid to these suggestions that were mooted in the wake of the Thattekad boat accident in 2009 that claimed the lives of 45 tourists, mostly from Delhi and Kolkata.

Safety audit

A safety audit, greater vigil and surveillance and concrete steps to ensure safety and security of tourists should have been place after the alleged rape of a 35-year-old German tourist at Kovalam two years ago. That, tourism watchers say, could have saved the life of the Latvian national. Tourism director P. Balakiran, however, thinks otherwise. What happened at Kovalam, he says, is a one-off incident. The department, he asserts, is keen on preventing recurrence of such incidents with appropriate safety measures. The State machinery had better do that because at stake is the very future of the tourism industry that had registered impressive growth both in footfall and revenue during 2017. The year had seen as many as 10,91,870 foreign travellers arriving in the State, an increase of 5.15% compared to the previous year. More heartening, the State had recorded the arrival of 15 lakh new domestic tourists, taking the total number of domestic tourists to 1,46,73,520 in 2017, as against 1,31,72,535 in 2016.

The State has set its eyes on increasing domestic tourist arrivals by 50% and doubling the number of foreign tourists by 2021. This would be possible only if there is 9% increase in domestic tourists and around 15% increase in international tourists. “We are on a growth trajectory now. Naturally, therefore, safety and security of the visitors is a big concern for tour operators. If any unsavoury incident takes place during the itinerary, the visitor will seek damages and this will affect the destination badly,” says Ajith G., regional level India Tourism guide. “This is now an industry of foremost importance for the State and everyone associated with the industry should be accredited so that each can be monitored and held responsible for their actions. The stakeholders of the industry have as much responsibility as the government to ensure safety and security of the tourists,” chips in Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) senior vice-president E.M. Najeeb.

There are enough signs that the Kovalam incident has given the government a real jolt. A high-level meeting of tourism and police officials chaired by Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran, held here this week, has decided to strengthen Tourism police mechanism and to put more women on the job. The uniforms of Tourism police personnel would be changed to make them easily recognisable. A mobile app that would help visitors to easily contact the police personnel is also to be rolled out soon.

Tourist assistance booths would be operationalised at all destinations. All vendors and tourist guides would be given identity cards and uniforms. The police have agreed to share lists of history-sheeters with the tourism officials. In destinations where the Tourism police cannot be deployed, Tourism Wardens, on the lines of Traffic Wardens, would be posted after giving them language and soft skill training. Destination-level Committees headed by Superintendents of Police or Station House Officers would be set up.

State Police Chief Loknath Behera is confident that, with appropriate structures on the ground, it would be possible to ensure complete safety of the tourists. “We are ready with an action plan, which would include giving effective training to the Tourism Police personnel, better surveillance of the destinations by installing more CCTV cameras and going in for hand-holding with the hoteliers and other local-level stakeholders. Our effort will be to do all this in an unobtrusive manner, without infringing into the privacy of the visitors,” Mr. Behera told The Hindu .

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