Houseboat Tourism and Sustainable Development Goals: Integrating Local Community of Kumarakom

Abstract

AbstractThe tourism business has the prospective to impart, directly or indirectly, most of the sustainable goals. The promotion of entrepreneurship and small businesses can play a momentous role in endowing less favored groups and poverty reduction goals. This can be achieved through the sustainable tourism development approach which would create a positive impact on the community’s livelihood enhancement. Literatures show that tourism is one of the powerful forces of global economic growth and presently provides for one in eleven jobs worldwide. Public/private collaboration and businesses are in-excludable part of tourism development because it has increased awareness about the role of tourism in the delivery as the biggest establishing service sector in the country. Kumarakom is one of the most protuberant tourist destinations in Kerala state, explicitly centered on Backwater Tourism. This is an exquisite tourism product that delivers a unique travel experience to the legatees. Houseboat Tourism Industry contributes substantially towards SGDP (State Gross Domestic Product) nearly 10% of the total productivity of the state. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the operations of Houseboat Tourism Industry in Kumarakom and its contribution towards the enhancement of the livelihood of the local community and their socio-economic development on par with sustainable development goals - Decent Work and Economic Growth. The paper assesses the role of education of the local community to get involved in the Houseboat Tourism business in Kumarakom to reap substantial benefits from this sound industry. The study employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches with the support of extensive literature inputs. Questionnaire and field investigations are used as a major tool for data collection.KeywordsTourismSustainable development goalsHouseboat Tourism IndustryKumarakomSocio-economic development