ISSN: 2639-2119
Authors: Rahul NR*, Reethu D and Akhil U
Tribal tourism is a kind of cultural tourism increasing its significance all around the world. Under tribal tourism, community gives a chance to the tourists to explore and experience the traditional and authentic way of living, heritage, history, handicrafts, and so on. The governments and communities put their share of interest in promoting tribal tourism, which helps to boost the economy of the communities and stimulate more opportunities to interact with the tourists and sometimes it helps them to maintain long-term relations. Wayanad a beautiful district of Kerala is home to nine indigenous communities. Hence in recent years the district has witnessed a rise in the new tribal tourism projects which aims to attract tourist to the local tribal customs and lifestyle. While tribal tourism projects help the indigenous population in multiple ways, it has also negatively impacted the traditional way of life of these communities. It has raised the threats of losing privacy, indigenous ownership, misrepresentation and misinterpretation of tribal culture, the dominating role of mediators, commercialization of tribal culture, and so on. This paper thus analyses the role of tribal tourism and its possibilities and threats in the Wayanad district, an attempt to address the significant impacts of tourism on the tribal communities of the district and to discuss how the indigenous people conceive the impact.
Keywords: Tribal Tourism; Wayanad; Indigenous Knowledge; Possibilities; Threats; Responsible Tourism
