KERALA TOURISM NEWSLETTER
Theme-based Streets to come up in Kerala
Kerala Tourism will launch a project named STREET in select locations in seven districts with an aim of taking tourism deep into the state’s interiors and rural hinterlands. The theme-based streets will help visitors experience the specialty of each location. Green street, cultural street, village life experience street, experiential tourism street, agri-tourism street, water street and art street are the themes planned for each location.
STREET is an acronym for Sustainable, Tangible, Responsible, Experiential, Ethnic, Tourism hubs. The project is conceived by the State Responsible Tourism (RT) Mission and is inspired by the ‘Tourism for Inclusive Growth’ slogan of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
In the first phase, the project will be implemented in Kadalundi in Kozhikode, Thrithala and Pattithara in Palakkad, Pinarayi and Ancharakkandi in Kannur, Maravanthuruthu and Manchira in Kottayam, Valiyaparamba in Kasaragod, Kanthallur in Idukki and Chekadi in Wayanad.
The Tourism Minister Mr. P. A. Mohamed Riyas said the STREET project will usher in significant changes in the tourism sector. “The project aims to present the unique identity of our state to the travellers. It will foster mutually beneficial organic relationship between tourism development in the State and the ordinary lives of people,” he added.
The STREET project will be implemented in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, and have local bodies and residents as stakeholders.
Mr. V. Venu, Additional Chief Secretary, Tourism, said the project is envisaged as a model for decentralised tourism development, and it will help bring little-known rural destinations to the mainstream and create more jobs. The STREET project will have a time frame of four years for implementation.