Mysore, Mar. 24 (KMC)- Sustainable Tourism, a novel concept in India, is being introduced for the first time in Karnataka, aimed at making the State a leading tourism destination.

The mission is being launched by the Karnataka Tourism Forum (KTF), in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), through a series of workshops.

The second workshop in the series was held at Hotel Kings Kourt here this morning — the first was held in Bangalore.

The workshop was addressed by C.B. Ramkumar, Chairman of the Sustainable Tourism Committee and attended by representatives of various hotels of the city and owners of Home Stays located on the outskirts of the city. They were sensitized on the need to make the environment around their enterprises sustainable, co-existing with the available natural resources along with commercial interests.

Speaking to Star of Mysore on the sidelines of the workshop, Ramkumar said "Tourism needs to be developed not only in the interests of the tourists but also the stakeholders — the SMEs and the employees involved — keeping in mind the environmental sustainability."

He explained that while the large hotel chains are capable of adapting to the new norms, the SME sector lags behind for a variety of reasons such as lack of awareness, lack of training and training facilities, absence of legislative support and high initial capital costs.

"The need for assistance is highlighted by the fact that over 80 per cent of hotels belonged to SME category," Ramkumar said.

Ramkumar added that these challenges had to be met with a combination of production-based solutions which are the responsibilities of tourism sector.

Courtesy : Star Of Mysore