TBM Staff - Mumbai In a major step towards maintaining standards and regulating services offered by the adventure tourism providers, the state government of Kerala is perhaps the first government to have asked all such operators for mandatory registration. As per the recent move taken by the state government, the adventure tourism operators providing services in air, land and water will have to mandatorily register with the state government for running their operations.
Kerala Adventure Tourism Promotion Society (KATPS) which comes under the state Department of Tourism has formulated the procedure and protocols which are to be followed by the tourism service providers in the state. Earlier, the KATPS had also set-up an expert committee to determine the safety guidelines and standards for adventure tourism. The committee headed by former KATPS Chief Executive Officer late Manesh Bhaskar had studied over 30 adventure tourism activities that are offered at different tourist destinations in the state and formulated the safety guidelines for the same.
Tourism Director V R Krishna Teja was recently quoted as saying that the adventure tourism sector has very high potential especially in the aftermath of the Coronavirus pandemic. The official further said that with the mandatory registration and strict regulation of the activities of the service providers, the state will attract even more tourists from different parts of the country and the world. The official added that the move will result in cementing the trust of the tourists in the state’s adventure tourism service providers.
As per the new regulations, the registration will be mandatory for all service providers. The Tourism Director of the state will complete the registration of a tourism facility for a maximum period of two years after physical visits and site checks made by the tourism officials. Once the tourism facility has been approved by the inspection officials, it will be given the license to operate in the state for two years. After the passage of a two years period, the new regulations have the provision of the renewal of licence after fulfilling the same set of conditions and standards. (Source FE)
