He was speaking after inaugurating a seminar on Kerala’s Responsible Tourism journey at World Travel Mart in London
He was speaking after inaugurating a seminar on Kerala’s Responsible Tourism journey at World Travel Mart in London
Kerala’s Responsible Tourism (RT) initiative has set a global model in sustainable destination development by creating better places for people to live in and visit, said Minister for Tourism P.A. Mohamed Riyas.
He was speaking after inaugurating the seminar on ‘Looking Back, Moving Ahead: 15 Years of Kerala’s Responsible Tourism Journey’ at World Travel Mart (WTM), London, on Wednesday. The Minister said RT will be a major vehicle for economic empowerment of people across the State.
The activities of the State’s RT Mission have achieved far-reaching results for the benefit of the local community and the tourism industry in Kerala, the Minister said at the seminar held on the concluding day of the 43rd edition of WTM at ExCeL London (Exhibition Centre London).
Participating in the seminar held to celebrate 15 years of Kerala’s experience in taking forward the community-based RT initiative and half-a-decade of the State RT Mission, experts, who were drawn from different countries, said it was the effective involvement of the community in all RT activities that has resulted in the evolution of a successful model in the post-COVID-19 world.
The Minister said Kerala’s experience has proved that RT can play a decisive role in taking forward sustainable tourism development as envisioned by the United Nations. “We have created more than 25,000 units under the RT Mission. These units comprise small-scale entrepreneurs, artists, craftsmen, traditional workers, farmers and other service providers from the grassroot-level,” said Mr. Riyas.
Kerala’s success has created a huge impact on other Indian States as well, and some of them have signed memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with the State, he added.
Noting that tourism has no future without people’s participation and without generating jobs for local community, Gambia’s Minister of Tourism and Culture Hamat Bah said he plans to visit Kerala soon as his country is keen to learn from the State’s experience in sustainable tourism development through the RT initiative.
On the occasion, Mr. Riyas released the brochure ‘15 Years of Kerala’s Responsible Tourism Journey’ by handing over it to Mr. Bah.
WTM London 2022 has been a meeting place for the global travel trade that attracts top travel destinations and tourism buyers and sellers from all across the world.
