- Kerala government’s nodal agency, ‘Responsible Tourism Mission’, has partnered up with NotOnMap
- The idea behind the ‘Responsible Tourism Mission’ is to encourage ‘responsible tourism’ principles and practices
- The RT forum focuses on three kinds of responsibilities – economic, environmental and social
THoD Newsdesk, Kerala: To bolster the progress of rural tourism and to bring about a transformation in villages across the country, Kerala government’s nodal agency, ‘Responsible Tourism Mission’, has partnered up with NotOnMap to address the issues faced by the tourism sector in India. NotOnMap is a social initiative for the marginalized, indigenous communities across rural India along and now, this joint venture is all set to make a difference.
The idea behind the ‘Responsible Tourism Mission’ is to encourage ‘responsible tourism’ principles and practices, that pushed Kerala into becoming a popular rural tourism destination, preferred mostly by domestic tourists.
Hosted by Rupesh Kumar K., State Coordinator, Kerala RT Mission, this event witnessed the coming together of ideas, towards a Sustainable Tourism model. The event was also convened by an imminent panel, inclusive of Dr. Manoj Kumar Singh, Director (Skill), MP Tourism Board, Raj Basu, Advisor, Arunachal Tourism Board, Manisha Pande, Founding Member, ICRT India and Kumar Anubhav, Founder and Director, NotOnMap along with various other leaders of the industry.
Speaking at this conference, Kumar Anubhav, Founder and Director, NotOnMap quoted, “While the nation was combating the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, we focused on how to boost the rural tourism all over India through Project Travival. The main objective of this initiative was to help the rural communities by capitalizing on their untapped culture and value heritage. Many industry experts came together to conceptualize, design and execute Project Travival which consisted of 150+ training videos.”
The videos have been curated in over 18 regional languages and further divided into 12 modules for homestay owners, village panchayats, teachers/youth/women of the villages and travellers across India. They not only cover topics around homestay and personal safety and hygiene but also educate people on sustainable practices and homestay businesses, especially during this ongoing pandemic. The videos cover all the necessary points laid out by international bodies and the government guidelines too, which includes policies to be followed by the hosts to maintain a safe stay of the guests.
The panellists also talked about the immediate need to bring in all the elements of Rural Tourism under a common umbrella. One of the prime deliverables of the RT mission is to initiate community-level tourism activities. The concentration even lies in helping the local community to generate income directly or indirectly from the sector.
The RT forum focuses on three kinds of responsibilities – economic, environmental and social, which is regarded as the “triple bottom line”. Majority of the Responsible Tourism Mission training has the involvement of women, which in turn is providing them with work opportunities from home, according to their own convenience.
