Do you know story telling? Are you an expert cook? Can you win hearts with your smile? If the answers are YES, Kerala Tourism’s BRDC (Bekal Resorts Development Corporation) invites you to become entrepreneurs in the tourism sector under its SMiLE (Small & Medium Industries Leveraging Experiential Tourism) project.
Indigenous culinary and tastes have become an integral part of experiential tourism today. Story telling about the destinations has also become a popular devise to attract more tourists to those destinations. BRDC plans to utilize the indigenous tastes of Malabar to lure tourists to the region by providing the required training to the prospective entrepreneurs.
BRDC invites women and families to start small and medium tourism ventures in north Malabar region, asking them to utilize their expertise in cooking, storytelling and smiling.
A workshop will be held at Kannur with this intention in association with North Malabar Chamber of Commerce; date of the workshop to be confirmed. Interested candidates can register their names with BRDC, online.
Tourist footfall to North Malabar region has been showing a positive swing in recent times. BRDC intends to facilitate starting tourism venture of the local people, which will enable them to find a source of income and an opportunity to showcase the hospitality and indigenous tastes of the region to the world.
Facilitation centers for women travellers only can also be started by the local entrepreneurs with the assistance and guidance of BRDC.
Homestays, budget resorts, serviced villas, farm tourism, Ayurveda centers, ethnic art forms, yoga, kalari center etc., are having tremendous scope in the tourism sector. It will open an ocean of opportunities to those who are expert in these sectors.
BRDC’s SMiLE initiative has already gained attention in the tourism sector with the conceptualization and implementation of innovative ideas in the industry. 28 per cent out of the total 93 entrepreneurs working tourism sector of North Malabar region are women. In most of the cases, family members also take part in their businesses. Notably, most of the units avoid the usage of liquor in their premises. Expertise in English is not mandatory when it comes to experiential tourism; which is also a favourable condition for the locals to start their own ventures in the tourism sector.
The workshop will give emphasize to development of entrepreneurs in the rural sector and assist them to market their products. Those who have already successful in the sector will interact with the participants in the workshop. After the preliminary workshop, those who are interested to move forward will be given necessary guidance by BRDC, starting from project formulation, implementation and marketing.