Agriculture Minister Mullakara Ratnakaran has called for a serious debate on the concept of responsible tourism in the State. Inaugurating a seminar on tourism held as part of the run-up to the Nehru Trophy Boat Race here on Friday, Mr. Ratnakaran said though many preached about responsible tourism, there were only a few who practiced it. The biggest irony was that most of these ‘preachers’ were from the educated class living in urban areas, which were the most irresponsible on various aspects, particularly public hygiene.

Urban areas are suffering the consequences of indiscriminate dumping of garbage, whereas hamlets and adivasi colonies, which were on a lesser scale on the education graph, were comparatively not affected. Such irresponsibility on part of urban areas was seriously affecting the State’s development, particularly the tourism sector.

Citing the case of the Vembanad Lake, Mr. Ratnakaran said the habit of being socially responsible had to be inculcated into daily life if progress in the tourism sector was to be achieved.

C.K. Sadashivan, MLA, said there was no point in playing the blame game over the lost glory of Alappuzha. The town, once prominent on the industrial, marine and tourism maps of the State, still had a chance to regain its glory, provided the tourism potential was exploited in a responsible manner. K.C. Venugopal MLA, P.P. Chitharanjan, municipal chairman, Tomy Pulikattil and others spoke.