By gifting out of the box ideas and models to the world for sustainable tourism development and taking tourism to the grass-roots level by involving communities , Kerala is showing how to make the world a better place to live and increase tourist arrivals.
The stronger mandate given to the tourism sector in economic and development policy planning, responsible tourism (RT) initiatives since its launch in 2007, and formation of the RT mission have led to the emergence of Kerala as a leading RT destination.
RT is an alternative approach evolved against the negative impact of ‘mass tourism’. It has been conceived with three kinds of responsibilities - economic, environmental and social - which have been termed the ‘triple bottom line’.
Minimises negative impact
It also minimises the negative social, economic, and environmental impact, generates greater economic benefits for the local people and enhances the well-being of host communities.
A unified definition for “responsible tourism” was declared at Cape Town in 2002 alongside the World Summit on Sustainable Development but a working model for RT initiatives was developed by Kerala at Kumarakom in Kottayam.
Despite impressive growth, local communities and local self-government institutions did not have a role in tourism development. Often, it resulted in conflicts between the local community and the industry. The launch of RT initiatives at the key tourist destinations of Kovalam, Kumarakom, Thekkady, and Vythiri in 2007 on an experimental basis had resolved this issue.
Local support to projects
The support from the local community, stakeholders, and global audience to pilot projects led to the extension of the initiatives throughout the State and formation of the Responsible Tourism Mission in June 2017.
The RT mission was tasked with, among other things, initiating community-level tourism activities, creating tourism trade-community level linkages, and encouraging adoption of RT principles and practices by tourism trade and other stakeholders.
The mission was launched on October 20 last year by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
“Kerala Tourism has always promoted RT. Our approach has become more focussed in identifying areas in more destinations with the formation of the RT mission. We have been able to give memorable experience to the visitors arriving here,” says Secretary, Tourism, Rani George.
Initiating community-level tourism activities is one of the prime deliverables of the mission. The mission has also stepped in to help the local community generate income directly or indirectly from the sector and train them.
Apart from generating income to the local community, it has helped maintain various traditional/ local works and protect the environment by eco-friendly products.
Training to beneficiaries
Compared to the 1,280 people trained during the initial 2008-2017 period in select tourist destinations, the RT mission had been able to impart training to 2,269 beneficiaries in the past one year.
The swelling RT mission units is also a testimony to the growing influence of the initiative in the State. There are more than 6,161 registered units under homestays, farm stays, tented accommodation units, local tour operators, shikkara operators, country boat operators, RT chauffeurs, art & cultural units, handicraft & souvenir units, paper bag & cloth bag, perishable products like milk, vegetable, value-added food products like pickles, supply units, weaving units and so on. Kozhikode tops the list with 1,005 units followed by Kumarakom (752), and Bekal with 649.
A total of 12,322 people directly benefit and 32,838 indirectly by the activities of the units under the mission. “This shows the impact of the RT mission as there were only 197 registered units in the first 10 years. All families at Naduthuruthu, a small islet in Kozhikode district, are RT mission units,” says State RT mission coordinator Rupesh Kumar K.
Creating tourism trade-community level linkages is another major deliverable of the mission. Extensive field activities are on across the State to establish industry linkage for RT mission units.
Boost in revenue generation
Within one year, RT mission units have been able to generate ₹5.20 crore for the local community from the tourism sector while it was around ₹12 crore for the past 10 years.
The mission has also developed an online platform for the registered units to sell their products.
Operating local tour packages is another way to link the community with industry. The mission has prepared 40 experiential tour packages across the State. Almost 450 families are directly linked with these packages alone.
The RT mission has developed three online platforms to link the community directly with the tourism sector.
The RT Art & Cultural Forum links artists and cultural groups directly with tourists and the tourism industry. The human resource portal provides the details of unskilled and semi-skilled persons of different categories such as plumbers, electricians, chauffeurs, and housekeeping staff.
The Responsible Tourism Network for product sale enables the registered RT mission units to sell their products directly to customers. The mission has also started an online booking system for the experiential tour packages.
Resource persons
To support the field activities of the mission, 750 were trained as community tourism resource persons. Of the 750 seats, 15 were reserved for the transgender community and 24 for the differently abled. Each district has 50 to 60 resource persons and they are supporting the district mission coordinator/ destination coordinator in executing initiatives.
Women empowerment
The majority of the RT mission beneficiaries are women. Many of them are from the local community involved in traditional jobs .
“Most of the RT mission training is aimed at the womenfolk. The mission is providing women an opportunity to work at home according to their convenience and earn money,” says Tourism Director P. Bala Kiran.
Of the 6,161 units under the mission, 3,456 are headed by women. An ethnic food restaurant - Samridhi - run by a group of eight ladies at Kumarakom has won wide appreciation.
Environment protection
Environmental responsibility, one of the basic components of RT, has also been given focus with the mission propagating initiatives to reduce the use of plastic at the destinations. It has also drawn up plans for waste management and promotion and protection of local tree varieties.
The Clean Vembanadu Initiative is one of the major activities of the mission in association with industry partners, local community, and related organisations.
As part of the initiative, 55 loads of plastic waste was removed from the lake in Alappuzha. A registered RT unit is collecting plastic waste from Kottayam and Alappuzha and converting it into plastic brick for value-added products.
With the continuous effort of the mission and the support of the industry at Thekkady, all resorts there have replaced plastic straws with environmental friendly straws made of coconut fronds or bamboo. All resorts at Kumarakom and Thekkady have removed plastic water bottles and started using glass bottles. As part of ‘Barrier Free Kerala Tourism’, the mission is on the job of preparing guidelines to make Kerala an accessible/barrier free destination for Kerala Tourism.
