Responsible tourism in Kerala

By Harold Goodwin - 02 December 2009

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It was a great pleasure to be in Kerala again for the AITO conference and to have the opportunity to catch-up with Dr Venu. Responsble Tourism is making progress in Kerala. In and around Kovalam there have been initiatives which have generated additional earnings of £35,000 for the eocnomically poor through the tourism supply chain.

For more information about Responsible Tourism in Kerala see www.keralatourism.org/rt-index.php They are monitoring, measuring and will report the economic impacts of the policy. It is important to recognise that in India devolution of powers to the local gram panchayat has meant that significant decisons about torusm development have been devolved.

Dr Venu speaking at te AITO Conference reported that the last European charter has ceased and that Kerala is "not unduly perturbed". Kerala has 600,000 international arrivals of which 140,000 are from the UK, Kerala's largest international market. But the UK market is insignificant compared to the 7.5 million domestic tourists which Kerala received in 2008. Roughly half of these are pilgrims, buisness or VFR travellers, but Kerala is receiving 3.75m domestc leisue visitors a year. From a Keralan perspective the domestic market is a more secure future and a more sutianable one.

This article originally appeared on the Harold Goodwin Blog

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