Kerala tourism

NILAMBUR TO HOST MDTPC WORKSHOP

Malappuram District Tourism Promotion Council (MDTPC) will conduct a workshop in conjunction with the Kerala Tourism department at Nilambur.  The 3-day workshop and from August 13th to 15th, 2010 will bring together various entities like The  Kerala Travel mart (KTM) Society, The Kerala chapters of Indian association of Tour Operators (IATO) and Association of Domestic Tour operators of India (ADTOI) , Association of Tourism Trade Organisations of India(ATTOI), Tourism Professional Club(TPC), Cochin, Association of Professional in Tourism (APT) Trivandrum, Wayanad Tourism Organisation(WTO) and Malabar Tourism Organisations (MTO)  as well as  Tour Operators, Travel agents, Hotels and other bodies engaged in Kerala Tourism.   The participants will visit various tourism interested places in and around Nilambur including World’s first teak plantation, teak museum, Kerala Forest Research Institutes sub-centre, Nedumgayam forest area and Adiyanppara water falls. The workshop is intentded to lead to concrete proposals for exploiting the tourism potential of Malappuram and Wayanad. The initiative is targeted mainly as a weekend getaway for IT professional from Bangalore and Mysore in Karnataka.

The Western Ghats or the Nilgiris (Blue Mountains) guard the eastern boarders of Kerala. These undulating mountains and their valleys are carpeted with dense tropical forests and vegetations as well as with endless stretches of tea and spice plantations. This landscape provide for a veritable and breathtaking feast for the eyes.

Munnar is the most important mountain destination in Kerala. Situated on the confluence of three rivers – Munnar literally means three streams- Munnar has stretches of tea and cardamom plantations that stretch to the horizons. As you wind up or down the hairpin bends of the Munnar roads, view after breathtaking view of nature’s munificence unfolds before you. Apart from the backwaters of Kumarakam and Alleppey, this breathtaking beauty of Munnar and its surroundings is what induced the National Geographic to rate Kerala as one of ten ‘paradises found’ on earth.

Thekkady, hardly 2-3 hours drive from Munnar, is one of the biggest tiger preserves in India. The drive from Munnar to Thekkady through the mountains and valleys of plantations and forests is an unforgettable and unparalleled tourist experience to cherish for a lifetime.

Wayanad in the north of Kerala also provides for spectacular experiences of forests, plantations and rare species of wildlife like the lion-tailed macaque. Elephants, tigers, bison and many varieties of deer and monkeys inhabit the Nilgiri forests.

Over the millennia the Arabian Sea has been incessantly depositing sand and silt on to its beaches wave after rolling waves. Some of these deposits consist of valuable ores of Titanium, Uranium, Thorium and other heavy metals – Kerala has the second highest deposits of Thorium in the world and this is being replenished constantly by the Arabian Sea. However, from the tourist point of view the Arabian sea has been building up islands after islands for a hundred thousand years and more. The result is that the West Kerala is dotted and hyphened with hundreds of thousands of islands, some as small as a few feet across while others like Vypeen stretch for a dozen kilometers and more.

The seas that intrude into the land between these islands are called backwaters and the backwaters of Kerala are a unique experience as far as Indian tourism is involved. At some places the backwaters form canals hardly negotiable in canoes while in some other places the backwaters widens out into placid lakes, which are often a 1-2 kilometers wide. These Kerala backwaters also make for an inland water transport system that can take you from the north to the South of Kerala though now it is now limited to about 150 km from Allepey to Trivandrum.

This exotic and unique feature of Kerala is one of the reasons that induced the National Geographic Traveler to describe Kerala as ‘Paradise Found’ and to recommend it for the tour of a lifetime – the other reason is Munnar and its surroundings. Alleppey and Kumarakam are the most important destinations of Kerala under the backwater category of tourism. An overnight stay in one of the so-called houseboats is a unique experience of Kerala tourism.

Houseboats are a recent development of Kerala tourism. The labyrinth of backwater canals were the main infrastructure for transport in Kerala until fifty years ago – they are still the main line of transport in Kumarakam and Kuttanad. Bulk transport and long distance travel were effected in what are called ‘vallams’ which are refined canoes some 20-30 feet long and 4-6 feet wide in the middle. Awnings 6-8 feet long and 3-5 feet high made of bamboo thatched over with coconut leaves provided shelter from the weather on long the distance travels. A decade or so ago someone thought of extending the scope of these awnings to 10-12 feet high and 30-40 feet in length and about 12 feet wide in the middle. Living facilities like rooms, toilets and kitchens were incorporated under these awnings to make the famous houseboats of Kerala. Over the decades the number of such houseboats have burgeoned into a few thousands. In the beginning houseboats were single storied, single room affairs that accommodated a couple or two. Now they have evolved into multistoried, multi-roomed affairs and some of these houseboats of Kerala even sport conference/convention facilities which can accommodate over a hundred participants.

The popularity of these houseboats vis-à-vis Kerala tourism led to environmental problems from toilet and fuel effluents on the backwaters of Kerala – the houseboats are powered by diesel-guzzling outboard motors. Agitations from environmentalists  and the local populations forced the government to implement strict regimen of pollution controls. Consequently all the houseboats of Kerala are equipped with the state of the art effluent treatment systems and provide for an environmental friendly eco-tourism.

Kerala lies on the Arabian sea and has a shoreline of about 700 Km in length. This provides for a number of beach destinations in Kerala. The beach destinations in Kerala are from north to South, Bekkel Fort, Kannur Fort, Kappad beach in Calicut, Cherai Beach, Varkala, Kovalam and Kanyakumari. The most important of them is Kovalam, which is evolving into a favorite destination in India. Most beaches provide for sunbathing and other beach tourism activities.

Kerala and the Tourist: Kerala is a long and narrow strip of land sandwiched between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. From the tourist point of view Kerala has three topographies – the beaches, the backwaters and the mountains/valleys. Subsequently, Kerala Tourism can be classified into beach tourism, backwater tourism and mountain/valley tourism.