THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Tourism industry in Kovalam has never been too enthusiastic about the Responsible Tourism movement. Still, the Tourism Department has decided to give it another try this tourism season. If this attempt too comes a cropper, the Department might crack the whip. The plan is to implement the Responsible Tourism Classification aggressively in Kovalam.
A top tourism department official said that once the classification process was in place capital and power subsidies would be limited to RT-compliant units. As of now, any new tourism unit was entitled to capital subsidy and power tariff concessions. Being RT-compliant mainly involves sourcing raw materials locally.
“If Responsible Tourism is firmly rooted in Kumarakom it is because the industry there has owned it,” said K. Rupesh Kumar, state RT Mission coordinator.
Even before the start of the season, tourism properties in Kumarakom are purchasing products worth nearly Rs 1.5 lakh every month from local suppliers. There are more than 2,000 direct beneficiaries. In the case of Kovalam, where the RT movement is as old as in Kumarakom, there are less than 20 beneficiaries. “It is hard to convince property owners in Kovalam to source locally. In Kumarakom, they did not even require so much as a nudge,” Mr Kumar said.
After all these years, only a couple of properties like Leela Kovalam sources milk locally. Kovalam produces perhaps the best quality milk and vegetables but the local resorts and hotels are somehow not convinced. The tourism official said that the difference in approach had got a lot to do with the nature of the destinations. “Kovalam was already an evolved destination when RT was started. Kumarakom was relatively new and used RT as a tool to further their growth,” the official said. Incidentally, more than 60 per cent of the top-end properties in Kumarakom were RT-compliant even before the RT classification process began in Kumarakom way back in 2013. Now, almost 100 per cent of the properties are RT-compliant.
