Kottayam to take tourism beyond its coastal waters

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Tourists visiting Kottayam to experience its villages are soon set to move beyond the coastal backwaters to the plantation life on its highlands. The tourism sector in Kottayam, which is by and large focused on the backwater destinations of Kumarakom and Vaikom, looks to turn around its fortunes after the recent floods.

The Responsible Tourism (RT) Mission under the Kerala government has come up with a series of initiatives to expand the scope of its village tourism activities in the region.
The new programme envisages taking the visitors to the life in the rubber heartland by organising guided tours to the plantations in the Kanjirappally and Erattupetta regions combined with a visit to any of the micro destinations on the Western Ghats such as Illikkal Kallu or Ilaveezhapoonchira.

The packages, according to RT officials, are designed to help the tourists interact with the farmers and labourers in these plantations and learn about their daily life, techniques in extracting and processing the precious glue, among other things. Besides rubber, these visits will also cover the wide band of nutmeg and tapioca plantations in the adjoining areas.

The moderate weather prevailing in these hills coupled with tropical greenery make these foothills of the Western Ghats a perfect destination for day-visits.

Alongside the plantation visits, the RT Mission has also come up with a host of other innovative packages that will help the visitors learn about the local rituals, flora and fauna, among others.

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