THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Since 2006, when the campaign was launched for the first time, Responsible Tourism (RT) has been regularly re-launched in Kovalam. At times, it worked for a couple of years and then fizzled out. Mostly, it lost steam before a season wore off. This has, however, not deterred the Tourism Department from re-implementing Responsible Tourism in Kovalam from scratch. This year is no exception. The off-season is viewed as the right time to begin preparations as the necessary human and physical infrastructure is in place by the time the season begins in November. As a first step, the Department has formed a team to collect basic data from hotels and production units.
At the peak of the movement in 2010, there were nearly 80 farm and production units spread over places like Kottukal, Vizhinjam, Venganoor and Kovalam and at least 10 hotels and resorts in the area had sourced their requirements like vegetables, poultry, milk and eggs from these units. Now, the industry-local community linkage has shrunk to a couple of big hotels that source 150 litres of milk monthly from the local community. “The data collection is essentially to assess afresh the potential of the beach destination. We need to get a feel of the volume of local production that can be attempted and the realistic cooperation the movement can hope to get from the industry,” a top Tourism Department official said. A 16-member Panchayat-Level Responsible Tourism Committees (PLRTCs) has been set up in Kottukal, Vizhinjam, Venganoor and Kovalam. The first mandate of PLRTCs, which are headed by panchayat presidents, is to identify the most marketable things in Kovalam.
If RT failed to take off in Kovalam, it was because the planners had tried to put the cart before the horse. Souvenir and paper bag production units, for instance, were set up before identifying the most marketable products. The result: products were left unsold. Industry was asked to source raw materials from the local community but quality assurances were hard to come by. “The products might have adhered to quality standards but there was no official seal or logo to attest to the quality. This absence of official authentication means absence of accountability,” an industry representative said. Since there was no central storage space, supply was also unreliable.
