Experiential travel trends, which help tourists experience a destination by connecting to its history, people, and culture, are slowly becoming a game-changer in the State. Among the experiential packages offered by the Responsible Tourism (RT) Mission in Kerala, agri-tourism, and village life experience tourism initiatives have become popular within a short span.
After the pandemic, off-the-beaten-track destinations have been witnessing a spurt in tourist activities. As many as 21,995 tourists, including 512 foreigners, visited the agri-tourism networks across the State from January to July, while the number was 3,678 and 568, respectively, in the village life category.
In Aymanam
In the village life experience, Kumarakom experiential package, including Aymanam, a village in the backwater landscape, which was chosen as Kerala’s first model Responsible Tourism village, is the most sought-after experiential tourism destination. It saw a footfall of 912 domestic and 118 international guests during this period. The Wayanad package also saw 548 domestic and 92 international guests during this period. While domestic tourists mainly flock to agri-tourism networks, the village life experience packages attract both international and domestic tourists.
“Even during the pandemic, we received almost the same number of guests in our experiential tourism packages indicating a future for this segment in Kerala. In fact, this data is only an indicator. Based on the definition of tourists, day-visitors are not counted as tourists. But most of the farming and cuisine experience activities are during daytime, operated directly by various units. So, the actual number of tourists who visited the these destinations would be much higher than those numbers,” said Rupesh Kumar, coordinator, RT Mission.
“Further, there are a lot of other tour operators and small activity groups in this field and they are not counted in a proper way. A detailed study is required to assess the impact of the initiatives in rural Kerala,” said Mr. Kumar.
