This webportal is a collective effort to pool critical resources on Kerala Tourism and its social, political, cultural, environmental and human rights impacts
Resources
Zones of Contestation: Call For a Moratorium on Mega-Resorts
Kerala Tourism Watch has endorsed the Call for Action on Mega Resorts issued by the Global Tourism Interventions Forum.
For further details and to endorse this campaign, write to:
EQUATIONS, #415, 2nd C-cross, 4th main, OMBR Layout, Banaswadi
Bangalore 560043, India (Telephone: +91-80-25457607/25457659
Fax: +91-80-25457665)E-mail: campaigns@equitabletourism.org
URL: www.equitabletourism.org Or tourism investigation & monitoring team (tim-team), P.O. Box 51 Chorakhebua, Bangkok 10230, Thailand, Email: timteam02@yahoo.com, Webpage: http://www.twnside.org.sg/tour.htm
Scott Free! Protecting Children against Sexual Exploitation in Tourism: Challenges and Imperatives in the Indian Situation Equations, March 2009
Equations, March 2009
A Handbook for Waste Management in Rural Tourism Areas: - A Zero Waste Approach
by Shibu K. Nair and C.Jayakumar
December 2008
This hand book is being published to help NGOs and Local Governments to assist communities to manage discards in the ETP sites. The hand book will also help develop a sustainable plan in these sites to deal with waste so that it will not distract visitors or deny them the special experiences of the unique sites in rural India.
Responsible tourism: prospects and dangers
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Thursday, March 27, 2008 BRP Bhaskar The government’s primary duty is to make sure that development of tourism does not endanger Kerala’s precarious ecological balance. It must never be forgotten that what propels the private sector forward is the profit motive. If the authorities do not closely monitor and regulate their activities, the natural beauty that attracts tourists may be lost in no time. |
Call from the South: North Needs to Cool it: People's Statement on Climate Change
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Jointly issued by Tamil Nadu Environment Council (TNEC) and EQUATIONS, India at the UNFCCC COP held at Bali, Indonesia, December 2007 It is often argued that there are many communities in the world whose livelihoods depend on tourism thereby attempting to provide a justification to increased air travel. Local communities dependent on tourism as the main economic activity should rethink their disproportionate reliance on tourism that leaves them extremely vulnerable and revert to sustainable forms of livelihoods.We seek an end to all market based mechanisms, including those for conservation, and especially to the carbon markets and carbon credit mechanisms. |
Enclavisation of tourism: Special Tourism Zones in India
EQUATIONS
Third World Resurgence, Issue 207-208
When the STA policy was proposed in 1992, some of the identified locations were Bekal (Kerala), Sindhudurg (Maharashtra), Diu, Kancheepuram and Mahabalipuram (both Tamil Nadu). The proposal never took off, probably due to a lack of the necessary economic impetus from the central and state governments. But in some identified areas like Bekal and Sindhudurg where the government went all out to implement the policy, communities resisted vociferously. It is important to learn from the experiences of local communities in these locations.
Strengthening Communities and Institutions for Sustainable Management of Vembanad Backwaters, Kerala
Solution Exchange- an initiative of the United Nations Agencies in India
Nearly 2 percent of the local adult population of the Kumarakom village on the eastern bank of the Vembanad Lake is employed in the tourism sector. The industry has illegally encroached upon many parts of the lake. Large-scale land filling is taking place in the lake, especially in Kumarakom and nearby areas of Kottayam district. Already several hundred houseboats sport boats are operating on the water surface. The sewage from resorts and houseboats are directly discharged into the lake and exhaust from motorboats is a major source of chemical pollutants. Reduced public access to the lake is another dimension of the expanding tourism. The traditional rights associated with use of the lake shore for various livelihood or domestic purposes have been affected.
A Report on Trafficking of Woman and Children in India (2002-2003)
A Report on Trafficking of Woman and Children in India, 2002-2003 (Volume I)
NHRC - UNIFEM - ISS Project
Coordinator:Sankar Sen
Principal Investigator/Researcher:P.M. Nair IPS
Sex tourism has become a problem in Kerala, which has witnessed a tourist boom since the early '80s. Along with the growth of tourism, there has been an increasing victimisation of young children. Kerala Women's Commission received numerous letters of complaints from women tourists, about sex tourism in Kovalam. Hoteliers in areas like Qullion, Alleppy, Ernakulam promote sex tourism, because such services bring them extra income. Victims are often projected by the agents as college girls in search of fun and excitement, wanting to earn an extra buck. In places like Alleppy, foreign tourists come and stay in houseboats. This houseboat sex tourism is a new and thriving concept. It is safe, as there are no raids on the houseboats. In Kerala, although places like Kovalam and
South based Tourism Groups raise concerns about UNWTO theme of the year "Tourism Opens Doors for Women"
Several South-based groups and networks involved in tourism issues expressed their concern about the theme of the World Tourism Organization's World Tourism Day – 27 September 2007: "TOURISM OPENS DOORS FOR WOMEN".
Read below:
(1) Tourism Action Group's (TAG) Statement "TAG CHALLENGES UNWTO: "CLOSE THE DOORS TO SEX TOURISM !"
(2) Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism's (ECOT)- statement "TOURISM OPENS DOORS FOR WOMEN – DOES IT?"
