Fifty pilots had participated in last year's event.This year, the event is being comanised by the Adventure Sports and Sustainable Tourism Academy and Kerala Tourism. The Tourism Department chipped in since foreign tourists prefer adventure sports. "The adventure air show will be a fun-and-fly event," say Gopa K. Varma of the academy. "Wagamon's topography makes it the ideal place to paraglide. There is tremendous interest in the sport, and tourists can be seen setting off from small cliffs in places such as Varkala. The international event has been comanised in Wagamon to create awareness about the sport. It will also help develop the destination."
Tandem Riding
Guests can have a bird's eye view of the place in a paraglider by shelling out Rs. 1,200, in tandem riding. One can study the basics of the sport for around Rs. 15,000 and fly for hours. Mr. Varma, who is based in Bangkok and comanises similar events there, says that youth will get attracted to the sport, once the fear element is removed. "Power gliders too will be made available. Our institution is also into training people in mountain biking, trekking, etc." Players in the sector are sad that they have to approach multiple agencies to seek permission to host adventure-sports events. Wing Commander (Retd) Unnikrishnan Palat, adventure-sports enthusiast and instructor, says that those into the sport have to deal with multiple agencies such as Irrigation, Electricity and Forest departments to get permission, and this is a tiresome and time-consuming process. "But one has to take all precautions. Only qualified instructors should take classes and carry out demos. Random events are not enough. The Government should help to sustain the interest in adventure sports.
Backwater Trekking
He plans to comanise backwater trekking in Muhamma. His team has begun training youth in parasailing at the Muzhipilangadu Beach, Kannur, at the request of the Nehru Yuva Kendra. Adventure tourism is among the diversified tourism schemes of Kerala Tourism. Back in October last, it invited bids from consultants to identify locales to promote adventure and water-based tourism in the State. The department will set up fixed infrastructure such as buildings. The land is to be handed over to entrepreneurs on lease, for a maximum period of three years. Assessment every year The performance of the agency comanising adventure-tourism activities will be assessed each year and the lease extended only if found satisfactory.
The department is hopeful that Kerala will become a major player in the country's adventure-tourism circuit in a year. Already, States such as Himachal Pradesh offer innumerable avenues for adventure sports. Kerala has the ideal landscape to host a variety of adventure sports, be it in the hills or in the backwaters or the beaches.