The Hindu Business Line : Innovating to stay ahead

RANDOM WALK
As Kerala constantly seeks to retain its pride of place in the pantheon of global tourist destinations, any and every innovation that is aimed at driving quality traffic to the State ought to be encouraged.

With such a dazzling canopy of green to cocoon "God's Own Country", it is hardly surprising that trees and foliage are to Kerala's visitors what passports are to the global traveller - indispensable.

So it was with only a slightly quizzical shrug that Kerala lovers read the news last week that the State's Tourism Minister, Mr K.C. Venugopal, had released a book extolling the virtues of trees associated with the various signs of the traditional Indian zodiac system.

Titled Stars and Trees: Trees of the Nakshatravanam, and published by the Ecotourism Department of the Government of Kerala, the book has been developed in collaboration with the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI), a unique research centre on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram.

According to the writers of the book - mostly seasoned TBGRI scientists with PhDs - the traditional system of astrology as practised in Kerala assigns each "nakshatra" or star in the zodiac to a specific tree. There are 27 stars in the zodiac and each "zodiac" tree is said to have medicinal, social and aesthetic values that correspond to the characteristics and ethos of the particular star.

It might appear somewhat zany to promote a tree as a personalised memento that a tourist would wish to pack to take back home. But consider how other regions of the world market their unique wares, ranging from homespun textiles and garden-fresh brews to kitsch curios and sheer vainglorious monstrosities.

One particularly enterprising entrepreneur even tried to bottle and sell over the Internet the rarefied "air" of an idyllic Scottish region.

Kerala Tourism's attempt, however, is not some sham designed to fool the unwary. It appears to be a sincere effort to innovate tourism products for a State that is fast approaching saturation in terms of exceptional offerings for the alert independent traveller. Yet that does not mean that all avenues for innovation have been exploited.

Take, for instance, the Kollam-Shencottah metre-gauge train route through some picturesque scenery that is now due to be shut down, apparently for lack of revenue. Here is a situation right up Kerala Tourism's street. If it could negotiate with Indian Railways to co-manage and run that stretch of railroad - unique to Kerala and much of the south - Kerala can hope to do a Darjeeling, whose "toy train" ride has by now acquired legendary status among travellers.

For a State that needs to constantly innovate to remain ahead of the rest of the tourism pack, Kerala will need to be on its toes all the time. Even seemingly crazy ideas need to be followed up, for the traditional charms of the State have already been milked to the maximum.

Thus the case of Kerala's fallow paddy fields could provide an interesting point of departure for some innovation in ecotourism projects.

The Kochi District Collector recently issued show-cause notices to 1,000 people who owned 3,000 hectares of paddy fields in the district that have been lying uncultivated. Apparently, initial surveys have revealed that 738 hectares of land was lying fallow in the district.

Many hectares have already been illegally converted into housing sites. But the government is now planning to force the owners to do something with their land, rather than let it lie fallow.

Given the uneconomical nature of paddy cultivation in Kerala, perhaps they would do well to design some ethnotourism projects around their paddy fields. Kerala Tourism would do well to encourage and support such innovations.

As Kerala constantly seeks to retain its pride of place in the pantheon of global tourist destinations, any and every innovation that is aimed at driving quality traffic to the State ought to be encouraged.

Tourism has arguably proved to be the one industry that has managed to hold its ground in Kerala. For that industry to grow, a string of innovations and offbeat ideas are imperative.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

More Stories on : Environment | Books | Random Walk | Kerala

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page