HOW ‘GREEN’ ARE THE TOURISTS VISITING ECO-TOURISM SPOTS AND STAYING IN RESORTS? A STUDY OF SELECTED RESORTS IN WAYANAD DISTRICT OF KERALA, INDIA

Abstract

In the context of growing environmental awareness and emerging environmental concerns arising out of climate change-induced issues, the tourism industry has started transforming itself by making shifts in the strategies and the kinds of services they offer. In line with this, green tourism has been emerging as an innovative area in the field of tourism. But, for green tourism to be successful in every aspect of its being ‘greener’, the guests visiting resorts and tourist places as well as the Staffs including managers at different levels engaging the guests need to be ‘green’ in their behaviour. Drawing on data from 80 randomly selected visitors at certain chosen resorts from the Wayanad district of Kerala India reveals that only 24 per cent of the tourists are Fully Fledged Green Tourists (tourists satisfying the majority of the expected green behaviours considered in the study) whereas 29 per cent and 47 per cent are moderately and marginally green tourists respectively. Most worrying is the fact that the marginally green tourists appear to be the highest in percentage. This corroborates the argument that the tourists visiting resorts and tourist places need to be further greener in their behaviour and attitude.