Kerala is in plans to pump up its Rural tourism in India amidst the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. It comes as great news for villages in the state.
To boost and increase rural tourism and bring transformation in villages across the country, the Kerala government’s nodal agency ‘Responsible Tourism Mission’ has collaborated with NotOnMap to address the challenges faced by the tourism industry in the country.
'Responsible Tourism Mission’ was initiated to encourage Responsible Tourism principles and practices that made Kerala a popular rural tourism destination and most visited by domestic tourists.
Rupesh Kumar K, State Coordinator, Kerala RT Mission hosted an event that was attended by Manoj Kumar Singh, Director (Skill), MP Tourism Board, Raj Basu, Advisor, Arunachal Tourism Board, Manisha Pande, Founding Member, ICRT India, and NotOnMap official.
The forum focuses on bringing in all the elements of Rural Tourism under a common umbrella along with catering to the requirements of the villages. They have also indulged in helping the local community to support them generate income directly or indirectly from the sector and training is provided to find different approaches that have evolved against the negative impact of “mass tourism”.
The forum focuses on three kinds of responsibilities – economic, environmental and social – which is called the “triple bottom line”. Most of the Responsible Tourism mission training is associated with womenfolk. The mission is to provide women with an opportunity to work at home according to their convenience and earn a living out of it.
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The prime goal behind coming up with this initiative was to assist the rural communities, Kumar Anubhav, Founder and Director, NotOnMap, said. This will be done by capitalizing on untapped culture and value heritage in rural areas. Many industry experts are conceptualizing, designing and executing Project Travival, which consists of more than 150 training videos, Anubhav said.
The Project Travival videos in over 18 regional languages divided into 12 modules for Homestay owners, village Panchayats, teachers, youth, and women of villages and travellers across India, so that language will be no barriers thus covering all stakeholders of “Rural Tourism” in India. The videos not only cover topics around homestay and personal safety and hygiene but it educates individuals about sustainable practices and homestay business during Covid-19.
The videos cover all points laid by international bodies and the government guidelines, includes policies to be followed by the hosts to maintain a guaranteed safe stay.