The State-run Bekal Resorts Tourism Development Corporation’s (BRDC) new experiential tourism strategy to attract more tourists to north Malabar with the involvement of small and medium tourism entrepreneurs is expected to yield results, if the success of the recent three-day tour of the tour operators in Kasaragod and Kannur districts is any indication.
The BRDC’s new initiative to tap the region’s tourism potential and to woo more tourists to the region, named Small and Medium Industries Leveraging Experiential (SMiLE) Tourism, evolved into a model for developing tourism destinations during the recent SMiLE Ambassadors’ Tour programme hosted to facilitate a linkage between the 93 SMiLE tourism entrepreneurs in the region and leading tour operators in 40-odd nations who took part in the tour.
During the tour programme organised by the BRDC in association with the Tourism Department and the Association of Tourism Trade Organisations India (ATTOI), the tour operators got an opportunity to experience ‘Suranga’ (a traditional water conservation technology in Kasaragod, natural cave in the hill area villages in Parappa and West Eleri in Kasaragod, Malabar Kalari, Mangalamkali, Alamkali, Yakshagana puppetry as also the seven-language theatre in Kasaragod.
“The SMiLE’s primary target is to lure even more mid-budget foreign tourists rather than accord priority to premium segment and domestic tourists,” BRDC managing director T.K. Manzoor said. The stress in the development process was on entrepreneurship and marketing, he added.
A press release issued by the BRDC said that it had so far put into operational mode 50 SMiLE tourism ventures managed by 93 entrepreneurs. Informing that 28% of entrepreneurs were women folk, it said that the entrepreneurs had the capacity to accommodate over 400 tourists a day in the region. The project focuses mainly on creating accommodation facilities and providing experiential tourism services with the unique linguistic, cultural, historical tourism products and mythology linked to the destination.
During the final leg of the tour programme, the tour operators had the opportunity to interact with North Malabar Chamber of Commerce (NMCC) representatives here and officials of the Kannur International Airport Ltd. The BRDC press release said that ATTOI State president C.S. Vinod highlighted the need to replicate the SMiLE initiative in other parts of the State as well, as it was a socially responsible tourism initiative that involved local people. The tour operators also exuded the hope that the SMiLE initiative would brighten the prospects of tourist inflow to the region, the release noted.