Amidst expectations of a much slower recovery of the global economy post COVID-19, rural destinations of Kerala are now turning their focus inward.
Expecting a shift to responsible tourism, the Kerala Responsible Tourism (RT) Mission has set its eyes on intra-State tourists over foreign and inter-State travellers. To tap the market, the agency will soon come up with a host of cultural experiential and learning packages to woo the travelling community.
“The norms of social distancing and fear of a viral outbreak are expected keep away the visitors from outside for some more time. In this context, the intra-State travelling community becomes our immediate focus as it will take at least a year for the global travel and tourism industry to recover,” says K. Roopesh Kumar, State coordinator, RT Mission.
Beneficiary network
According to Mr. Kumar, the cultural experiential packages are designed with a focus on localising tourism to build a network of beneficiaries around a particular tradition or an artist. Beyond experiences of the rural life, these new packages will offer the visitor a chance for skill development by learning a particular rural tradition — also extending their duration of stay at these destinations.
The network in each of the destinations comprises homes offering local cuisine , accommodation units, community tour leaders, souvenir-making units, and cultural performance units, besides local religious festivals in and around the region. Each of these units is identified on the basis of a resource mapping conducted by the RT Mission in association with the local panchayat concerned.
The RT Mission has identified 48 new village destinations across the State. “Efforts are on to ensure at least five accommodation units at each of these new destinations, which may vary from homestays to farmstays or even tent accommodations,” Mr. Roopeh adds. With the addition of new destinations, the mission seeks to add at least 10,000 household units to its existing network of 17,008 beneficiary members.
With social-distancing norms in place, the agency now counts on its village destinations to gain prominence over mass tourism destinations. The village tours, according to RT Mission, are designed as exclusive packages for each small group of visitors and as each package comprises different starting points, there is a system in place to divide any number of visitors into different group.