KOCHI: Adventure tourism specialists Muddy Boots and Mercury Himalayan Explorations (MHE) are joining hands with Kerala Tourism to launch a host of adventure tourism courses on KITTS campuses.
KITTS has campuses in Thiruvananthapuram, Malayattoor, Thalassery and Thrissur. Training on the field will be a major component of the courses. Muddy Boots is the technical partner while MHE will be the industry partner.
The technical partner will devise the curriculum and facilitate the faculty while the industry partner will take care of internship for the students and their placement.
“It is perhaps for the first time in the county that such adventure tourism courses are being devised. Initially, there will be four certificate courses and one diploma course. The idea of the courses is to create a trained workforce to guide tourists interested in adventure tourism so that risks are minimised and responsible tourism is undertaken,” said a KITTS official.
The certificate courses are an introduction to adventure tourism; safety, risk management, first aid and wilderness first response; risk management liability and environment impact and the speciality certificate programme in areas like flora and fauna and focussed trekking in mountain terrain and bike maintenance.
The diploma course for six months is in adventure tourism management. The speciality certificate programme is for seven weeks while other certificate programmes are for two weeks.
“There is enormous potential for such courses. The Association of Adventure Tour Operators of India has in place guidelines approved by the Union ministry of tourism for adventure tourism. In due course, these will become mandatory also. So trained personnel are needed to implement such codes in the sector, and these courses are aimed at that. The courses will be launched in KIITS in a month,” said the official.
He said that areas like giving first aid in the wild and training in using various gadgets for mountaineering are a key part of that.
