This webportal is a collective effort to pool critical resources on Kerala Tourism and its social, political, cultural, environmental and human rights impacts
Statements
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
Civil Society groups demands democratic and transparent public hearing on Kovalam artificial reef project
Thiruvananthapuram, 06/03/02009: The Kerala Swathanthra Matsya Thozhilali Federation (KSMTF), Kerala Tourism Watch,Kerala United Fisheries Forum,Alleppy, KABANI – the other direction in joint press release demands a transparent, democratic and participatory public hearing on the artificial reef project, Kovalam.
Another tourism is possible and urgent! Declaration of Belém – Global Tourism Interventions Forum
World Social Forum, Belém do Pará – Brazil, 28 January to 1 February 2009
We, participants of the Global Tourism Interventions Forum, which took place between 28 January and 1 February during the World Social Forum in Belém of Pará, Brazil, Pan-Amazon region, members of organizations of countries of Latin America, North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, affirm that another tourism is possible and urgent!
Kerala action: NO to golf courses - YES to biodiversity park
Letter to Tourism Authorities in India/Kerala from International Organizations supporting the demand for the Closure of Trivandrum Golf Club
From Tourism investigation & monitoring team (tim-team), On behalf of the Global Anti-Golf Course Movement's (GAG'M).
Coordinating groups: Third World Network (TWN); Consumers Association of Penang (CAP), Malaysia; Friends of the Earth (FoE), Malaysia; Tourism Investigation & Monitoring Team (tim-team) Thailand; Global Network for Anti-Golf Course Action (GNAGA), Japan; Helping Our Peninsula's Environment (HOPE), USA; GAG'M liaison initiative UK (Desmond Fernandes)
Additional signatories: Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), United Kingdom; Tourism Action Group, Philippines
Close down Trivandrum Golf course and withdraw all proposed golf projects in the state
Joint Statement from KERALA TOURISM WATCH, EQUATIONS & KABANI – the other direction
Statement urges Kerala Government to abandon the Trivandrum golf course. It should be converted as a public bio diversity park for conservation and education. Abusing the public resources for protecting the hobby of few vested elites in the city can no longer be permitted.
Kerala Declaration on Irresponsible Tourism
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WE the representatives of peoples movements of Fisher folk, of Tribals, of Dalit communities and of Civil Society Organizations, as deliberated in the Convention against Irresponsible Tourism at Ernakulam, Kerala, India, on March 22nd 2008, declare our strong opposition to the intentions of the Kerala Tourism Department and tourism industrial lobbies to project Kerala as a global destination of Responsible Tourism while repeatedly failing to address and resolve the enormous problems caused by indiscriminate tourism development in the state. |
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. |
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?"
"Tourism has never been what you have claimed"- Coastal Women Forum writes to Union Minister and UNWTO on World Tourism Day 2007
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In Kovalam, one of the most prominent tourism destinations in Kerala, many of the women fruit sellers, most of them from fishing communities, are faced with harassment and torture by the authorities and hoteliers. In Kerala's backwater tourism destinations, the livelihoods of fisher folk and farmers are at stake because house boats, resorts and other boats are polluting the waters. Trafficking of women and the revitalization of the domestic prostitution have become major threats in many destinations due to the development of tourism and the entertainment industry. Based on these experiences, the UNWTO and various governments should understand that tourism has never been what they have claimed it is
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Statement from FORUM KERALA on Special Tourism Zones
The Kerala Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan recently announced that the creation of Special Tourism Zones (STZ) would be considered if private parties having large tracts of land approach the State Government. He also declared that government would change the rules relating to acquisition of land for tourism projects in the State.The government’s plan to announce STZs in Kerala has to be challenged because it will augment the pressure over the natural and other resources such as land, water, forests and will lead to environmental destruction, revenue losses and lack of real economic development of the state, breakdown of governance systems especially of the Panchayats with the creation of enclaves and lack of equal and non-exploitative employment opportunities for local communities in STZs.
