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Paul Mathew , Rupesh Kumar

Abstract

When the scale of growth shifts from economic terms to human development indicators, it is the empowerment of people of bottom level decides the real development of nations. To ensure faster, sustainable and inclusive growth, participation of people from all walks of life is essential especially for the marginalized sector. The concepts of local self governance and participatory approach pave way for democratic decentralization and sustainable development of villages. In par with these concepts, a novel approach Responsible Tourism (RT) charts new trend in grass root level empowerment by ensuring involvement of all the different sectors of society. Here the article articulates the strategies and institutional mechanism of RT initiatives of Kerala as a strategy for the empowerment of common people in tourism destinations.

Keywords: Responsible Tourism (RT); Decentralization; Local Self Government (LSG); Triple Bottom Line (TBL); Destination Management; Sustainable Development and Participatory Process

Paul V Mathew is a Research Scholar at School of Management Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kerala, India and a former State Team Leader, Responsible Tourism, Kerala. He has MBA from Mahathma Gandhi University, Kottayam

Rupesh Kumar is the State Level Field Coordinator of Responsible Tourism, Kerala. He has M Phil and MA degree in Sociology and he is also pursuing PhD at the School of Gandhian Thoughts in Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India

Cite this article:
Mathew Paul, Kumar Rupesh. RESPONSIBLE TOURISM - A GRASS ROOT LEVEL EMPOWERMENT MECHANISM: CASE STUDY FROM KERALA. Innovative Issues and Approaches in Social Sciences, vol.7, no.1:53-70, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.12959/issn.1855-0541.IIASS-2014-no1-art04

Digital Object Identifier(DOI): http://dx.doi.org/10.12959/issn.1855-0541.IIASS-2014-no1-art04

View full text in pdf: http://www.iiass.com/pdf/IIASS-2014-no1-art04.pdf