National geographic traveler has selected our state as one of the top 50 tourist destinations in the world. The factors accounted for this is the successful projection our rich natural resources like backwaters, hill stations, art forms, beaches, festivals, house boats and waterfalls. Besides this Ayurveda has also played a major role in developing Kerala as an international travel hub. Even thou
gh forex earned from tourism has increased from a mere 0.13 bn rupees in 1986 to 37.97 bn rupees in 2010, there are unexplored options which can take the tourism arena of our state to level next. Innovating Kerala tourism through this unexplored ways will be the crux of our business plan. The trend of modern tourist is towards resilience to nature and countries are designing strategies and programmes to promote tourism based on experiences derived from nature, culture and society. This novel concept put forward for giving new direction to Kerala tourism is named as
“SENSIBLE TOURISM”
Sensible tourism aims at satisfying the five senses of human being to its peak and bringing it to a level of ecstasy. As of now, our tourism provides immense pleasure to eyes and ears of traveler through backwaters, beaches, art forms,festivals etc... The core idea of sensible tourism is extending this pleasure to the satisfaction of the rest 3 senses like touch, taste and smell. The execution of this is done by opening new doors to tourism sector in the form of food, spice villages and adventure tourism. Kerala is well-known for its spicy and delicious cuisine. Ranging from Malabar in the north to Travancore all places are famous for their indigenous taste. To be precise each 14 districts in Kerala has its characteristic receipes. Exploring and branding traditional taste through exclusive kiosks located at all tourist locations, there by introducing the concept of kerala taste to the tourists is the “TASTE” in sensible tourism. Spices is an integral part of our life and its said that even the smell of spices could cure diseases. As our state is rich and famous for spices “SMELL”of sensible tourism can be done through establishment of SPICE VILLAGES in tourist destinations where air will carry the smell of spices which gives a rejuvenating and extraordinary olfactory experience to the tourists. These villages are set up either amidst of spice cultivating areas or other measures to get same experience elsewhere as well. For the sense of touch/feel the modus operandi includes adventurous tourism, feel the nature campaigns like enjoying rain, play in mud etc. Kerala has rich flora and fauna but effective utilization of this for tourism has not yet taken place. We have dense forests like Silent valley in Palakkad District, Sholayar, Wayanad to name a few. There are still unexplored areas inside these. We see a lot of opportunity for conducting adventurous trips into these jungles and thereby opening new doors to tourists interested in adventure and exploration. This can be done only under supervision and guidance of concerned authority. Feel the nature campaigns make the tourist feel and experience the natural gifts like rain and make people stepout barefoot in rain and mud and enjoy nature in its pure form. According to statistics, Kerala tourism is concentrated on central and southern Kerala. Northern part is weak in terms of tourist attraction. And also average number of days a tourist spend in our state is 16 and our govt targets 21 in coming years. If we implement the above plans it will be a solution to both above mentioned problems as Northern Kerala is very famous for its cuisines and most of the forests suitable for adventurous tourism are located there.
