Effectiveness of Responsible Tourism at Kumarakom, Kerala

Kerala has emerged as one of the prime tourism destinations on the national and international map and is considered as the tourism trendsetter in the country. The availability of plenty of natural resources, skilled manpower, supportive entrepreneurial community, strong local-self-governments, civil society organizations, multitude of micro enterprises, streams of professionals and academicians, responsible media and responsive tourism industry, provide the state an ideal setting to implement and practice ‘Responsible Tourism. Responsible Tourism initiatives at Kumarakom came up with outstanding results and emerged as the model destination in the implementation of responsible tourism. Responsible Tourism hereafter called RT.

The current study has been undertaken to analyse the effectiveness of Responsible Tourism at Kumarakom, Kerala.

For the purpose of study, 50 respondents (business houses) were selected as samples by adopting convenience sampling method. Analysis was done via statistical software 17.0. Karl Pearson Chi-Square Test, Friedman and percentage were used.

The study on the effectiveness of Responsible Tourism revealed that the major impact of RT is the increase in the standard of living of the respondents. With regard to concessional loan, not much impact is seen. The business houses were able to equipping themselves for Tourism. Only a few new customers are there for local handicraft because of the absence of variety handicrafts, unattractive nature of handicrafts and unavailability of handicrafts at tourist spot.

The study on the effectiveness of Responsible Tourism revealed that the major impact of RT is the increase in the standard of living of the respondents. The business houses were able to equipping themselves for Tourism.