'Responsible Tourism claims should be validated'

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Harold Goodwin, the Englishman leading the Responsible Tourism movement worldwide, has a good impression about Malayalis. ''In Kerala the wonderful thing is when you people say something you mean what you say,'' he says. But when it comes to Responsible Tourism, Goodwin is not willing to exempt even the 'straight-talking' Malayalis.

The tourism industry's claims of being responsible is just not enough, Goodwin says. Claims, according to Goodwin, should be measurable for it to be genuinely responsible. ''Hotels should make specific measurable claims about what they are doing. Only then will it be possible for consumers to blow the whistle, call the hotel's bluff,'' said Goodwin, who was in the state as guest of honour in the three-day International Symposium on Tourism and Livelihood.

As a first step, Goodwin says the state should decide on its responsibilities. ''There should not be a crowd. Priorities should be less than ten. The Cape Town declaration, for instance, had seven. Carbon emissions, water use, energy efficiency, black empowerment were some of them,'' he said. Then, work out the figures: electricity consumed per bed night or water used per bed night or total local employment generated.

There should not be a central body, like the Department of Tourism, fixing optimal benchmark figures. ''Each property shall work out its own figures based on its operational experience. Now the consumer can make a more learned choice. I can compare the hotels and opt for the one with the best energy performance or which has given the maximum jobs to the local community. The consumer will also find it easy to find out if the claims were untrue,'' Goodwin says. When consumer pressure starts to bear on the hotels, Goodwin says there will be a scramble to bring the average up or down, based on improved benefits to the environment and society.

While there are measurable figures, there are also certain nonnegotiable factors for which no limits could be fixed. ''Sexual abuse of children or the discharge of sewage into water bodies, for example. These are prohibited,'' Goodwin says.

Goodwin is against a certification system, which he says is an ''opaque concept.'' ''Under a certification system, I know nothing about a hotel's social and environmental indicators like sewage treatment, water use, energy savings and contribution to the community. They give you a gold card or silver card and nobody knows what it means. There are no figures. It is completely opaque,'' Goodwin says.

Goodwin, a professor of Responsible Tourism at Leeds Metropolitan University, is a person who cannot be easily missed. He is a stocky teddy-bearish man with a square ruddy face adorned by a salt and pepper beard and fitted with twinkling blue eyes. Yet, he managed to remain nearly invisible right through the two-day symposium, intervening only at critical moments. ''I was here to listen to what you had to say and spread the word to the rest of the world,'' he says.

Here are two things about Kerala he will tomtom to the whole world. ''Nowhere else have I seen a State Government willingly engaging at the local level. But the more extraordinary fact is, the tourism industry in your state is owned by locals.''