Kovalam gives in for backpackers now

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Virtually deserted by its traditional high-end tourists, especially those from Europe, Kovalam will now have to adapt itself to the reality of increasing backpackers. Industry insiders now fear that the beach destination, which has always prided in being a classy high-end destination, will now have to dumb down in terms of both cost and quality of services to cater to the tastes of the low-spending backpacker.

Backpackers, whom the state's tourism strategists had always tried to keep at bay, are said to have wild gypsy tastes. “In other words, this means that such travelers, mostly students and the temporarily or seasonally unemployed, are interested only in pleasure and they want to secure it at the least cost possible” said Jacob Gonsalves, a tourism consultant.

“Unlike the executive-class English or the Germans, these backpackers are not experience-seekers. These days they don’t even have a backpack, they come loaded with just their i-Pad,” he added. For them, innovative programmes like Responsible Tourism will not hold much value. “It is hard to get backpackers to buy our village life experience packages. They have their fixed normal packages, pre-sold to them long before the trip,” said a top Tourism Department official.

The Responsible Tourism project depends on tourists, especially foreigners, to purchase local products like paper bags and kathakali masks. Backpackers, it is felt, are least interested in cultural motifs.  “Their experience has always been internal, and their enjoyment is contained within their group and it is derived not from sights like beaches but from gypsy-like community bonding,” Mr Gonsalves said.

The hotel industry in the beach destination, too, is not particularly enthused about backpackers. “They are low-spenders and prefer to be in the beach from morning to evening or roam around the hinterland,” said a top official of a five star property in Kovalam.