You stroll down a path that winds through rice fields. A carpet of green extends before you, a palm grove – hazy in the distance. Egrets peck at worms among the rice sheaves. The gentle warmth of the rising sun embraces your shoulders and back. After an invigorating walk, you head back to the terracotta-roofed house by the lake. Here, an aroma wafts from the kitchen, hypnotically drawing you inside. Soon, you dig into a sumptuous Kerala breakfast of steaming fluffy appams, made from ground rice, and a stew of locally grown farm produce. The backwaters gently flow past as you sit in the patio with your friendly host family. This is a place that, at least for a few days, you can truly call home.
Kerala is a narrow sliver of land at the southern tip of India that's blessed with a diverse landscape and mesmerising culture. You experience sweeping mountain vistas, expansive tea estates set up during colonial rule, tranquil backwaters and pristine beaches. While the natural beauty of the land will soothe the senses, Kerala’s ancient art forms like Kathkali and Theyam will enthral you.

But unlike many other travel destinations, Kerala has managed to develop its tourism while still maintaining the beauty of the land, the wellbeing of its people, and their culture.

“We launched the Responsible Tourism programme in 2007 to bring together local communities and the tourism industry to create sustainable paths with financial, social, and ecological benefits,” said Ms Rani George, the Secretary of Kerala Tourism.

Kumarakom is a sleepy little village on the Vembanad Lake, the largest lake in Kerala. At one end is the Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary, home to many species including cuckoos and Siberian storks. Agriculture and fishing were the primary sources of income for people of this village.

In 2007, Kumarakom got the distinction of being the first location in India to implement Responsible Tourism practices. The community identified new possibilities for tourism. Homeowners, artisans, and locals engaged in traditional occupations came together and opened their doors to tourists.

“The most important benefit from the government’s initiative in Kumarakom is that we do not have to promote the location,” says Mr Unni Karthikeyan who runs the charming Nallathanka Nest. “Thanks to the RT Mission’s efforts, this little-known backwater village has seen a steady growth of tourists.”

Walking through the paddy fields, you observe farmers cultivating, sowing or harvesting. You accompany a fisherman in his wooden canoe down tranquil canals and cast your net for shrimp and freshwater fish. Later, his family will gladly cook the catch for you in a traditional Kerala style cuisine. Then head down the village pathways, and you will arrive in a compound where women weave baskets from bamboo or carpets from dry palm fonds. If you have the time, they will happily teach you the craft.

In Kumarakom, there were almost no purchases of local produce from tourism, according to RT Mission. Thanks to Responsible Tourism initiatives that bring artisans and farming communities together, the economic benefits are now clearly visible.

Across Kerala, 17,000 registered RT units have 100,000 people working within the Responsible Tourism ambit. Together, their revenue was two million euros last year. Kumarakom alone generated over half a million euros from the sale of local products.

After your village experience walks, you’re sure to develop a healthy appetite. That’s when you head to the Samridhi Ethnic Food Restaurant. Your lunch is carefully set out before you on a banana leaf like a work of art – a mound of local rice, red curry from fish caught by local fishermen, and cooked vegetables sourced from the local farmer co-operative.

Set up in April 2011, Samridhi is perhaps the best example of a symbiotic relationship between tourism and locals. The RT Mission trained ten local women in entrepreneurship and cooking practices and provided them with loans to begin operations.

“This project has changed our lives and how we look at ourselves,” says Puthuparambil Raji of Samridhi. “We were housewives who cooked for our families, rarely venturing outside the house. But today, we meet people from all over the world who enjoy the food we prepare.”

Samridhi empowers the women financially too. The restaurant is open through the day and serves breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner. So delightful is the food on the senses, the women are always busy. They have now expanded and cater for events in the area.

The initiatives of Kerala Tourism won international recognition including the UNWTO Ulysses Award in 2013, multiple Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) awards and national awards. In September 2019, Kerala Tourism won three PATA Gold awards, one of which was for the Samridhi restaurant project in Kumarakom.

But the government is by no means resting on its laurels.

Kerala Tourism today plans to move towards greater environmental responsibility with Green certification of destinations and calculations for carbon credits. RT Mission claims Kumarakom will be declared plastic-free by December 31st, 2019 and other destinations will follow in 2020.

“If people do not wake up to responsible tourism, there’s really no hope for a sustainable world,” said Mr Rupesh Kumar, State Responsible Tourism Mission Coordinator. “We must act now.”

Samanta was evicted from her home and now stays in temporary accommodations provided by social services, far away from her children. Her long experience in theatre is a valuable asset when she stands up before tourists and tells them about the history of the city's monuments.

Giuseppe, on the other hand, has spent years crashing a train station and bus stops. Trained as a surveyor, he was once a cook but an unpaid loan changed the course of his life.

The tour, taking place until August 1st and set to resume in September, starts from Bologna’s Picture gallery of Quadreria.

The gallery itself is a symbolic place for the project.

“It was once the property of the Charity of Ashamed Poor, the charitable institution in Bologna which assisted those gentlemen and citizens who fell in disgrace and misery," Daniele explains.

On the street, Samantha draws the tourists’ attention to the presence of homeless people on the sidewalk: "Do not ignore them," she suggests. "Smile at them, greet them as you would do with anyone else".

Giuseppe, after introducing the history of the landmark Montagnola park, can barely refrain his tears when the group arrives at the train station where he lived as a homeless person.

Dima Pylypchuk, 24, and Lilia Senky, 26, from Ukraine, chose Sanya for their first-ever visit to Asia.

We spoke to them as they visited the Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone, a popular tourist spot, famous for its 108-metre high statue in the sea and temple.

"It's definitely worth the 12-hour flight from Kyiv here because this is really amazing, really, says Dima."

"Sanya and China is our first trip in Asia," explains Lilia "and we decided to start exactly with Sanya because we heard it was a really nice place."

The fires began which started on Saturday afternoon in Castelo Branco, a district 225km northeast of the capital Lisbon, and which has spread to the Santarem district.

Strong winds are making it harder for firefighters to put out the remaining wildfires although they have been able to control 60% of the flames,

"We are ready for a difficult day," Belo Costa, a Civil Protection official, told reporters but said no houses were currently at risk.

Fourteen airplanes along with 251 firefighters vehicles on the ground are also battling the blazes, as well as 20 soldiers and four bulldozers.

Carbita said 12 civilians and eight firefighters were injured in Saturday's fires. Only one is in a serious condition and remains hospitalised with first and second-degree burns.

One of the two districts affected, Castelo Branco, is under yellow alert as temperatures are expected to reach 31C on Sunday, according to the national meteorological agency.

Ricardo Aires, the mayor of Vila de Rei, one of the affected municipalities, told Portugal's public broadcaster RTP that firefighters and resources were lacking.

The Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said in a statement that he is following the situation closely and sent solidarity to those affected.

In June 2017, a devastating wildfire in the central town of Pedrogao Grande killed 64 people and injured more than 250. The fire was the worst disaster in modern Portuguese history.

The beautiful narrow streets and walls of the Old Town in Baku, including the famous Maiden Tower, date back to at least the 12th Century, with some researchers convinced some parts go back much further, perhaps to the 7th century.

The remarkable area became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000.

UNESCO's annual World Heritage Committee meeting

It's here in Azerbaijan’s capital that Unesco’s 43rd World Heritage Committee met to decide over the course of ten days which sites and monuments needed to be added to the list - and which ones are in danger.

More than 2,500 delegates, committee members and experts participated in this annual forum... but who can apply for their site to be included? And what are the criteria that must be fulfilled to be part of the list?

"A legal process"

Mechild Rossler, Director of the World Heritage Centre said the meeting is a legal process:

“It’s signed by 193 countries and it's only an official delegation from a state that can present a nomination.

“But in some cases, local communities, NGOs and associations push for a site to be nominated so that civil society is also involved.

“The most important criteria is that a site must be of outstanding universal value.”

In Baku, 29 new sites from an original 37 nominations were added to the list because of their cultural characteristics and their unique quality.

Climate change is therefore an important factor, but so are any development plans or armed conflicts, such as the one currently affecting Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

Endangered sites around the world

This year, the UNESCO Committee identified 53 sites in danger around the world. Being included on this list may seem daunting to some of those included, but according to UNESCO, it works well as a powerful tool to identify and deal with issues.

Mechild Rossler said the system works extremely well:

“The danger list of World Heritage sites can be used to help the countries they’re in to obtain more international funding and raise awareness about the threats to the sites. So it actually represents help and support for the site instead of a criticism.

"First Aid" for cultural heritage

Eugene Jo, Programme Coordinator, for the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) said it’s important for site managers to have the skills to deal with crises:

“We have a specific course called first aid for cultural heritage in times of crisis.

“So this is actually to build up the capacity of site managers on how they should respond to these kind of threats when they happen.”

There are currently more than a thousand sites in the UNESCO's World Heritage list.

The next meeting of the World Heritage Committee will be held in 2020 in Fuzhou, China.