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Sustainable Development: How Responsible is Responsible Tourism (RT) in Kerala?
Kerala emerged with an open heart to the outside world projecting tourism as an industry only in 1980’s but the few decades which followed saw noteworthy & progressive growth in terms of international & national tourist arrivals to diverse attractive destinations, branding of state (Gods Own...
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| Format: | Printed Book |
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Advances in Economics and Business Management (AEBM)
2015
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| Online Access: | http://10.26.1.76/ks/008073.pdf |
| Summary: | Kerala emerged with an open heart to the outside world
projecting tourism as an industry only in 1980’s but the few decades which followed saw noteworthy & progressive growth in terms of international & national tourist arrivals to diverse attractive destinations, branding of state (Gods Own Country) and development of numerous tourism products (eco-tourism & medical tourism etc.) by the successive governments. Consequently, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) accorded the status of ‘Partner State’ to Kerala in recognition of its potential in the tourism sector. It is widely accepted that tourism industry is a multi-billion, multi–sectoral and multi-dimensional global phenomenon which is steadily increasing and arguably tourism has serious socio – economic –political and cultural implications. This consciousness led to the
development of Responsible Tourism (RT) concept, which is mainly conceived with three kinds of responsibilities which are termed as the ‘triple bottom-line’ economic responsibility, social responsibility and environmental responsibility which pertains to all forms tourism and it tries to minimize negative economic, environment and social impacts and supposed to generate greater economic and overall welfare of local communities. The question now arises how responsible is responsible/ sustainable tourism in the Kerala Model? or is there a Kerala tourism development model worth replication at all? What are the features of the Kerala tourism policy and does that
have any bearing on the communities who are at the receiving end. The State government’s policies on tourism are factually perceived to have a homogenous effect across the destination communities and this makes the case more precarious as given the context as laid above. This paper will reflect upon the broad understanding of tourism development situation in Kerala using secondary sources and review of literature available to argue that there are more contentions, contradictions and challenges from/to the tourism industry to the local economy rather than its contributions to the economy in the context of RT |
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| Physical Description: | pp. 612-616 Volume 2, Number 6; April-June, 2015 |