KOTTAYAM: A meet on Responsible Tourism has underscored the importance of maintaining environmental and cultural sustainability with the involvement of local communities while seeking to achieve high growth in the sector.
The meet, which concluded at the lake-side resort Kumarakom near here, wanted the governments to evaluate the success of tourism initiatives not by the number of visitor arrivals alone but by the value these tourists bring to the local economies at each destination.
A common refrain of the three-day meet had been on achieving the environmental sustainability, economic growth and socio-cultural conservation.
Summing up the proceedings at the concluding session, Harold Goodwin, professor at Leeds Metropolitan University and the director of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism, said the Responsible Tourism (RT) movement in Kerala was in great shape at the moment.
Achievements over the past five years have included enduring partnerships between panchayats, self-help groups, the local communities and the industry and “demonstrable and measurable benefits going to local communities.”
The conference was organized by the Department of Tourism in partnership with RTSchool@KITTS.
There was a suggestion to set up a specialized Sustainability University in Kerala to focus on academics and research related to the subject.
Some of the delegates in the conference’s open forum suggested development of “geriatric tourism” as part of RT in view of the changing demographics around the globe. –PTI
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