Kottayam: Kayakers from now on will traverse through the series of rapids along Kumarakom backwaters in Kerala's Kottayam district. A kayaking centre was inaugurated at Kumarakom on Tuesday by Cooperative Minister V N Vasavan as the state has been bolstering the tourism sector.
There are 26 kayaks with single and double occupancy currently at the centre. The project is leased out to a private party in association with Sree Narayana Jayanthi Public Boat Club. Vasan while addressing media said the District Tourism Promotion Council itself would take over the operations of the centre, with the cooperation from the boat club and would expand its operations once the Covid declines.
Sources said the state is planning several tourism promotion projects to plunge into the potential of the sector. The state which basked in the glory of tourism is now trying to retract the revenue it used to generate from the sector pre-Covid. Adventure tourism is eyed upon as it will woo young sports enthusiasts.
Kerala earned Rs. 45,000 crore in direct revenue from the tourism segment alone in 2019. However, when the Covid pandemic struck, shutting down the industry completely, it suffered a direct loss of over Rs. 35,000 crore. In 2019, 1.96 crore tourists visited Kerala among them 11,89,771 were international tourists. Around 15 lakh people are both, directly and indirectly, dependent on tourism in Kerala for their livelihood.
In 2019, Iruvanji river in Thusharagiri, Kozhikode had hit headlines after an international swift water kayaking tournament. The Malabar River Festival witnessed the zealous participation of kayakers from different parts of the world.
Kayaking adventure sports
Kayaking was introduced in Berlin Olympic Games in 1936. Intriguingly, kayak was a survival aid used thousands of years ago by people for hunting, transportation and to resist extreme weather conditions by Inuit or Eskimos in Northern Arctic region. It is also known as hunter's boat.
The protagonist in Ernest Hemingway's novel Old Man and the Sea brought back a whale skeleton from the sea. Similar skeletons were used as frames for kayaks while animal skin, usually seals skin, was used for covering up the boat.
