Responsible Tourism - A New Wave of Tourism in India
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Discovering India has always been an enticing experience, but this experience will become a little challenging henceforth. Owing to the fact that tourism in India is growing on a very rapid pace spreading its influence over this exotic continent of sub-India. Hence taking a toll over the flora, fauna and cultural identity, heritage which has been widely observed by the authorities, and even the local populace is becoming aware of this and hence have started realizing the responsibility of sustainability of the destinations on the part of visiting tourists through this new facet of tourism world Responsible Tourism. Now the tourists have to be more vigilant while traveling a destination. This implies that the tourists will be rebuffed and will be obliged to pay penalty if they were found indulging into any kind of misuse of mishandling of a particular attraction like littering, wasting food or chasing any animal. The main aim of propagating responsible tourism is to ensure the longevity of the essence of any region.
This might not be a very new concept in India, as Matheran near Mumbai had enforced the act of banning entry to motor vehicle a decade ago. The initiative of responsible tourism has already been embarked in West Bengal, where tourists are asked to check on water usage. On the similar line villagers of North East and Himachal Pradesh have teamed up against poaching. The state governments have also envisaged becoming pro active towards responsible tourism. Kerala has taken a remarkable step towards this phenomenon by adopting the Kerala declaration that calls for action to all stakeholders in tourism. The government has recognized Kumarakam, Kovalam, Thekkady and Wayanad as the destinations for responsible tourism. The tourism government is conceptualising ways to make this initiative a success by sensitizing the villagers, panchayats, self help groups, traders, property holders and even tour operators. In Chandigarh as well, responsible tourism has been adopted as a policy.
Members of the tourism board are accepting the fact that if certain impositions are not made then the tourism industry of India will not survive for long.
Another concept is of help tourism that has shown significant response in West Bengal and North East. People too are welcoming it enthusiastically, and hence this concept has been pronounced to be giving a boost to tourism. In Manas Tiger park alone 1,000 volunteers have taken up the responsibility to check poaching and also act as tourist guide. This has also helped the locals understand the value of their culture and come out of isolation. The methodology that is in the pipeline plans to incorporate 'hand holding' wherein after every seven years, one generation pass this concept to the next.
