International understanding is another critical area in which tourism can play and has played a major role. Tourism promotes understanding between people belonging to different nationalities by bringing diverse people face to face. The mingling of different cultures always had its own positive effects. In
Kerala resorts and hotels now host people from all over the world. Thus the local population has been exposed to the way of life of people living in far off countries. Thus there is a major change in the way people think and work and also in their attitude towards life. With the advent of the Information Technology (IT) industry more changes have taken place in the state. The younger generation exposed to the best working practices followed by the internationally known multinationals now do things with a totally different mindset.
Tourism helps to break down prejudices, barriers and suspicions that existed between nations. The best way of knowing another country is to go there and when vast number of people travel, the narrow, rigid boundaries that keep people in compartments naturally tend to shrink and a positive move towards better international understanding begins to operate. This is very evident in Kerala.
Dag Hammarskjold, the late Secretary General of the United Nations said in 1955 that the importance of tourism in the promotion of international understanding should never be underestimated. He made a classic statement.
“For it may, perhaps, be said, that one of the best ways to lay a human foundation for peace is to bring the people of the world closer to each other, to make them understand the different ways of life of people living in different parts of the world, to make them recognize the needs and hopes of others, the cares and concerns involved in their daily living and the ideals to which all people aspire. Travel is an excellent means of achieving such aims. It is an instrument in overcoming language barriers and contributes to a greater perception of the atmosphere in which normal traditions play such a meaningful part. The expansion of tourism will help to break down the frontiers which hinder friendship between the people of the world”.
