The kitchen garden that feeds a resort town

Kumarakom, on Vembanad Lake, has long been a destination for travellers who want backwaters, birds and a slow pace. It is also a case study in how a tourist town can try to keep money in the village. Kerala's Responsible Tourism initiative began in Kumarakom in 2007, and the Kerala Tourism department describes it as a partnership of the local panchayat, tourism businesses, non-governmental groups and residents.

One of its best-known parts concerns food. According to Kerala Tourism's material and reporting by Business Today in September 2008, women's self-help groups under the state's Kudumbashree programme grew and gathered vegetables, and a procurement group called Samrudhi collected produce from local farmers and supplied it to resorts. Agreements between local groups and hotels were signed on 14 March 2008, the day the programme was formally launched; accounts differ on whether 15 or 19 hotels took part.

The hotels were initially cautious about quality and supply, and the panchayat urged them to try. A hotel association leader quoted in the reporting later said the early mistrust had faded. Kerala Tourism itself is candid about the limits: the supply group has relied on rented vehicles and has also had to buy vegetables from outside the area to meet demand.

Kerala Tourism received the UN World Tourism Organization's Ulysses Award for innovation in public policy and governance for the responsible-tourism project in Kumarakom. Programmes of this kind are sometimes held up as models, but the useful lesson is more modest: ask where your food comes from, choose accommodation that buys locally, and tip the people who actually prepare and serve your meals.