Internationale Tourismus-Börse (ITB) Berlin has chosen Compassionate Kozhikode as one of the 50 inspirational global projects to highlight as part of its golden jubilee celebrations.
Compassionate Kozhikode, District Collector N Prasanth’s brainchild, aims to bring government agencies and citizens to volunteer hand in hand to make Kozhikode an inspirational destination for people to live in and to inspire others to visit. The project is the only such initiative in India and one of the three in Asia to receive the coveted recognition from ITB.
ITB is the world’s largest travel trade show with over 180 participants from five continents since it was first launched in 1966. To mark its 50th anniversary ITB created ITB50.com—an online portal that displays the examples of excellence in tourism from around the world under the tag 50 Destinations, 50 Encounters, 50 Stories.
“Tourism has been highlighted and promoted as a powerful tool for development, but ‘Compassionate Kozhikode’ flips the idea on its head. It starts from the idea that a destination is first a place where people live. It focuses its efforts on making Kozhikode a better place for its citizens. From this, it naturally follows that it will be a better place for travellers,” said Rika Jean-Francoise, Corporate Social Responsibility Commissioner of ITB Berlin, according to The Hindu.
‘Compassionate Kozhikode’ brings together city-based grassroots projects including Operation Sulaimani, Kozhipedia, Legends of Kozhikode and a few others others, and works to create a better and tolerable society.
Operation Sulaimani is a coupon-based food programme that works with local restaurant and food outlets to enable people (who cannot afford a meal) to eat food with dignity. According to The Hindu, while announcing that the following Asian Ecotourism Network meeting would be held in Kozhikode, the network’s founder and Chairman Masaru Takayama said, “So long as projects around the world upheld the dignity that Operation Sulaimani embodies, this concept is replicable and could be used to respond humanely to issues such as the refugee crisis.”
The Legends of Kozhikode documents the many hidden stories in the area. Kozhipedia is an OpenStreetMap-based project where volunteers record information about roads, streets, legends, folklore, and cultural and natural heritage. Saviri Giri Giri works with public transport authorities to help students travel to school free of hassle and with dignity using smart cards.
