Citing environmental issues, Fodor’s places Kerala on its No List

The State figures in the category of ‘destination beginning to suffer.’ It says the surge in tourism has exacerbated the impact of natural disasters

Highlighting the unsustainable tourism practices and environmental issues in the State, Kerala for the first time is placed on Fodor’s No List 2025, by Fodor’sTravel, the leading name in travel recommendations for over 85 years.

Fodor’sTravel Go List and No List respectively suggest the places one should consider visiting and the destinations one should avoid.

Kerala has been figured in the category of ‘destination beginning to suffer,’ after Agrigento in Sicily, Italy, which grabbed headlines for the severe water crisis that could be further aggravated by increased tourism, and the British Virgin Islands, which face the perils of an overwhelming focus on cruise tourism. Mount Everest is another destination from India that found a place in the category of ‘Perennial No List Destinations’. Indonesian island Bali, which has become a “plastic apocalypse,” tops the list.

According to Fodor’s note, the surge in tourism in Kerala has exacerbated the impact of natural disasters, particularly in areas where development has obstructed natural water flow and has increased landslide risk. Development is largely unregulated, unsustainable, and harmful to the communities and ecosystems of the Indian coastal State. Kerala has been placed on the list considering the impact of the catastrophic landslides in Wayanad, which claimed hundreds of lives; the number of landslides occurred between 2015 and 2022; and shrinking Vembanad Lake, the backbone of Kerala’s backwater tourism, triggered by floods, illegal constructions, and increased and unchecked tourism.

Fodor’s No List does not advocate travel boycotts as they harm local economies and fail to bring about meaningful change. According to them, the first step to alleviating a problem is recognising that the problem exists, and the list serves to highlight destinations where tourism is placing unsustainable pressures on the land and local communities. And these stresses need to be addressed. In 2022, the State was featured in TIME magazine’s 50 extraordinary destinations to explore.

Quality tourism

Sreedhar Radhakrishnan, an environmental activist, told The Hindu: “We have to focus on quality tourism experiences.” The present mass tourism and craft tourism followed by Kerala was unsustainable for the environmentally fragile State. The time was up for Kerala to make some holistic interventions to address the effects of environmental events and tourist impacts on the environment, said Mr. Radhakrishnan.

Published - November 17, 2024 08:45 pm IST