The government of Kerala and the United Nations Women together agreed to increase the tourism activities related to women in the state’s tourism industry.
Both, Kerala Tourism and the UN Women signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which is support gender-inclusive tourist destinations in the state.
The government release stated that P B Nooh, the director of tourism in Kerala, and Susan Ferguson, a representative of the UN Women India together signed the MoU. This initiative will be carried out by the Responsible Tourism Mission. The agreement cited supporting women-friendly travel in Kerala, the first-ever Global Responsible Tourism Summit in Kumarakom, Kerala.
It further mentioned the advice of implementing women-friendly tourism and supporting the interventions to change prevalent discriminatory social norms. These can be only achieved by creating modules and building the capacity of relevant stakeholders.
The summit was held for four days and was officially inaugurated by P A Mohamed Riyas, Kerala's Minister of Tourism. He stated that this initiative is a renewal of efforts towards women-friendly tourism since last October. In addition to that, he also mentioned the aim of this initiative, which is to support women’s empowerment by ensuring g good participation of females.
Around 280 delegates and 70 speakers were present at the summit where the representative of UN Women Tourism, Susan Ferguson stated that providing opportunities to women in tourism at important positions will help to reduce the gender gap situations.
