Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Tourism's two-day State-level workshop on Responsible tourism `Better together' that commences in the capital on Friday will prepare the ground for the State to take its first step towards putting the concept of responsible tourism into practice.

World-renowned expert on responsible tourism and Professor of Responsible Tourism Management, Metropolitan University, Leeds, U.K, Harold Goodwin, would make a presentation. The workshop is expected to mark Kerala's new journey on the path of sustainable development through responsible tourism.

Minister for Tourism and Home Kodiyeri Balakrishnan would inaugurate the workshop to be held at Kanakakunnu palace. The workshop is being organised in association with the International Centre for Responsible Tourism - India and Equitable Tourism Options (Equations). According to Kerala Tourism, the workshop would provide the right platform to discuss, define and evolve the elements and structure of responsible tourism as suited to Kerala's socio-cultural and ecological context.

It will discuss strategies, practices, tools, frameworks and measures across all sub-sectors to facilitate greater awareness and responsibility in giving a sustainable development impetus to Kerala Tourism. A working group/task force will be constituted to take forward the ideas emerging out of the discussions. The group will continue research and dialogue at micro and macro levels with various stakeholders and work towards formulating and implanting guidelines for responsible tourism in Kerala and develop sector-specific tools and development programmes based on the feedback from various stakeholders.

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