[knightrider_7]

After the flood disaster, in order to boost the tourism prospects of Wayanad District, an interstate bullet ride through Tamil Nadu and Karnataka is being organised by the Tourism department of Wayanad.

The group will be covering main tourism destinations in Wayanad at first, and the ride will pass through Mysore, Bangalore, and Ooty, before concluding at Wayanad.

The event will be held from 21st to 23rd September, 2018.

The idea is to spread the news that all the tourism destinations in Wayanad are safe to explore.

The flood disaster has caused around 4.6 crores of loss for the tourism industry in the district.

Source: Malayala Manorama

[KMT]

A lot of local people in Coorg are happy that tourisim has reduced here for the time being.
The rate at which mass tourisim is being promoted and touted is not sustainable in certain geographies and is detrimental to the local population.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by KMT

A lot of local people in Coorg are happy that tourisim has reduced here for the time being.

Shortsightedness - Tourism is very important for some states like Kerala & Goa. Tourism brings Rs. 30,000 crores a year to Kerala (source).

[KMT]

GTO its Shortsighted if one believes that the Rupee is the only lens one view the world through.

Lack of concern for the environment in the name of tourisim is costing some places dearly.

Tourisim should leave a light footprint and not a bloody gash across ecologically sensitive areas.

I guess they will need to spend well over 30,000 crores in fixing all the flood damage.

Kerala was a flourishing state before Tourisim came there. There was a lot of Agriculture and Industry there already. I dont think the 30,000 crores is incremental to this, it has come at the expense of other industries.

[howler]

Originally Posted by GTO

Shortsightedness - Tourism is very important for some states like Kerala & Goa. Tourism brings Rs. 30,000 crores a year to Kerala (source).

If you see what tourism has done to Coorg I’m sure you’ll change your views. The irony is that it’s such short sighted statements that our beloved govts too seem to echo.
Coorg doesn’t need tourism to flourish, we have enough problems dealing with the timber mafia and land grabbing by govts and politicians that use unregulated tourism as a guise for plundering our forests.

[Thilak29]

Originally Posted by GTO

Shortsightedness

I am surprised you thought so!

Money is only a commodity, tourism to Kerala and Coorg has made some irreversible damage to the ecology. One has to live (not mere visit as tourist) in these places to experience the change.

I am closely connected to these two places and can confidently say that tourism in the current (or recent past) shape or mode is not sustainable in long run.

Alas, When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.

[Thermodynamics]

From an environmental perspective, rather than tourism, the regions of Coorg and Kudremukh face bigger threats from iron-ore mining, tea and coffee plantations that are destroying shola forests. At the same time we cannot underrate the toll of tourism, for example, Mullayanagiri and Baba Budangiri ranges once pristine have now become trash bins. May be with proper measures, tourism can be regulated/managed in a less invasive way.

From the perspective of local economy, we have a population dependent on tourism. If not for tourism all they have is to work for tea/coffee plantation. Either way it is going to be detrimental to environment, if not tourism is better. Based on my conversation with locals who earn their bread from tourism such as jeep drivers, they prefer tourism over plantation works as the former is more lucrative.

Coming back to the topic of flood/rain affected hill stations, last week I drove down to Munnar, I found a Munnar fully deserted like the olden days. Remember this is a Neela Kurinji blooming season. The bloom is delayed due to rains and perhaps will last only a week or two. The locals need to make the most of this small window but there are no tourists. kind of picking up so to say. These type of awareness campaigns may perhaps bring relief to all those who work for the tourism industry.