Efforts Will be Stepped up to Raise Kerala’s Standing as Women-friendly Destination: Tourism Director

IDUKKI:
The international conference on Gender Inclusive & Responsible Tourism called for effective policy interventions, to further strengthen the state’s position as a global model in women-friendly tourism.

The event, organised by the Kerala Responsible Tourism Mission Society on behalf of the state Tourism Department in partnership with UN Women, concluded today, after three days of deliberations that emphasised the need to make the tourism sector around the world gender inclusive by promoting sustainable and inclusive practices in all verticals.

“This conclave has once again shown that Kerala always keeps abreast of inclusive, responsible and innovative practices”, Tourism Director Sikha Surendran said at the valedictory of the event.

She hailed the Kerala RT Mission Society’s efforts in building a complete women-friendly tourism ecosystem in the state.

Based on the takeaways from the meet, the government will be urged to take up necessary policy interventions to secure the goals of women friendly tourism initiatives, Tourism Director Sikha Surendran said at the valedictory of the event.

As the first step, the safety parameters required to make destinations women friendly will be drawn up and implemented immediately.

She wanted the tourism sector stakeholders to leverage cutting-edge technologies like AI and machine learning. Launching dedicated helplines and mobile apps for women tourists is on the anvil. The Tourism Department will support woman and child friendly tour packages, she said.

Though tourism provided the largest number of jobs to women, they still face discrimination in the sector. There should be conscious efforts to end all kinds of discrimination faced by women.

The Tourism Department will organise training and skilling programmes to scale up capacity of women in the sector. It is also important to create public awareness about women and child friendly tourism practices, Sikha Surendran added.

Dr. Harold Goodwin, International Centre for Responsible Tourism Global Chairman, Jagadees D, Additional Secretary Tourism, Govt of Kerala, Rupeshkumar K, CEO, Kerala RT Mission Society, Susan Ferguson, UN Women India Country Representative, Sajeesh SK, Chairman, Kerala Tourism Infrastructure Ltd, Anish Kumar PK, Tourism Advisory Board Member, Vimal Roy, President, Munnar Destination Makers, V Vinod, Managing Committee Member, KTM Society, Sam T Samuel, Former Chairman, ATTOI, Smart Munnar Secretary Justin Jose, Subhash Ghosh President, ATTOI; Binu Kuriakos, CEO, KATPS, Idukki DTPC Secretary Jithesh Jose; MP Sivadathan, Ani Haneef and Dr. Peeja Rajan, State Coordinator Kerala, UN Women were present at the event.