Thiruvananthapuram: Caravan parks coming up across Kerala as part of the Tourism Department's "Keravan Kerala" project will be located in natural settings, giving top priority to tourists' safety and security and hygienic features, the state government said here on Monday.
"What makes Kerala's Caravan Tourism policy different from others is that it is more responsible and more committed to local communities. The policy has laid the greatest emphasis on the safety and security of tourists and sustainable use of local resources in creating caravan parks," Tourism Minister P A Mohamed Riyas said.
The stakeholder-friendly Caravan Tourism policy, announced last month, also opens up possibility of turning accessible but unexplored places in the state into alluring destinations for the caravan travellers to park and stay.
The initiative is designed to make tourism a sustainable activity that would bring benefits to local communities and also scale up opportunities for the industry.
The minister said tourist caravans will be comfortable, fully regulation-compliant and safe. Likewise, the caravan parks will also be the most secure places that would not upset the natural and cultural settings of the locale, he noted.
"There will not be any garish constructions, leaving the place as natural as possible. Each Caravan Park will have a sewage treatment plant. The basic theme of the project is to club the luxury of caravan with the natural look of the park," he said.
The experiential potential of caravan tourism is enormous as visitors can savour the village life experience in a place where they are halting.
Whether it is a village with swathes of paddy field, a fishermen's hamlet or a hub of traditional industry or craft, they can have a close look at the daily chores of the community, the state Tourism Department said.
The experiential feature, directly linked to Kerala's successful Responsible Tourism (RT) initiative, has the potential to generate employment and commercial opportunities for local communities, local self-government institutions, small and micro enterprises, artists and collective endeavours of women like Kudumbashree, it said.
