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Kerala Tourism has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UN Women to promote women-friendly activities in the State’s tourism sector.

Under the MoU, the UN body would promote gender-inclusive tourism projects in the State and support Kerala Tourism's efforts to train women stakeholders in the tourism sector. The Responsible Tourism  (RT) Mission has been entrusted with the job of implementing the MoU.

Kerala Tourism Director P.B. Nooh and UN Women India representative Susan Ferguson signed the MoU on the sidelines of the  first-ever Global Responsible Tourism Summit held at Kumarakom in the last week of February.

Responsible Tourism Mission State Coordinator K. Rupesh Kumar, Kerala Travel Mart President Baby Mathew and State Tourism Advisory Council member Abraham George were also present.

The agreement would facilitate creation of modules and stakeholder capacity building, besides providing advisory support for baseline research, promotion of women-friendly tourist destinations and supporting interventions to change prevalent discriminatory social norms.

The world body would help Kerala Tourism to develop reports and material related to women-friendly tourism and their publication. The MoU will strive to build synergies with other flagship programmes of the State and help rectify social attitudes that hamper creation of gender-inclusive public spaces in tourism.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Ferguson said presence of a large number of women in the tourism sector would instil a sense of security among travellers to the State. “More jobs to women in key slots will not only generate employment but curtail the prevailing gender inequality,” she noted.

Tourism Minister P.A. Mohamed Riyas, while inaugurating the four-day summit at Lakesong resort, said the MoU was in continuation of the State government’s renewed efforts towards women-friendly tourism since October last year. 

“We will ensure good female participation in tourism initiatives and allied services besides RT (Responsible Tourism) projects. The idea is to promote tourism with focus on women empowerment,” he said.

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