Past Events

It's been about a month since the WHO declared COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. India, along with several other countries, is maintaining lockdown and we are experiencing its serious impacts on our day to day life. With tourism among the worst affected of all major economic sectors, this pandemic undoubtedly proved that tourism is one of the most vulnerable industries, perhaps one of the hardest hit and probably the one sector which would come out of the crisis in the most sluggish pace. This unparalleled situation and the discourse around it have changed the debate of tourism in a new direction.

The Students Conference for Conservation Sciences is a yearly conference
organized by the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, along with other
organizations working in the field of conservation. The conference is attended by
students studying conservation science (undergraduates to doctorate students)
and by a large number of resource persons- researchers in the field of
conservation or allied fields. EQUATIONS was invited to conduct a panel discussion on “Tourism Carrying Capacity (TCC)”.

There are many stories to be told about ‘the India’ that is not seen by commercial media- where a lot of newsworthy things are happening. We need to know and tell these stories. We as teachers, activists, and NGO practitioners need to bring these stories/ issues into public focus. We need to narrate our stories, talk about our issues, our achievements, our efforts and voice our opinions. “Community media is one of the ways that can be used to address the problems that commercial media is posed with”.

A presentation exploring the labour and environmental sustainability practices of the indian hotel industry, the industry’s engagement with local communities with a focus on tourism destinations, within the broad framework of social justice. The presentation also juxtaposes Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Accountability, while highlighting need for greater accountability of the hotel industry in tourism.

In November 2011, EQUATIONS co-organised a consultation with Save the Western Ghats movement, Prakruti, Keystone Foundation, Spice Route, Souharda Sahakari on 'Sustainable Tourism in the Western Ghats'. The aim of the workshop was to share ground realities and current experiences in tourism in the Western Ghats, and to develop a vision for tourism in the region. At the end of the three-day consultation, the Sirsi Declaration on tourism in the Western Ghats was presented.

Press Release on the consultation “Protecting Children in Tourism: Role of the Goa Children’s Act” organised by Children's Rights in Goa (CRG), Centre for Responsible Tourism, (CRT) and EQUATIONS” held in Goa on 8th- 9th July 2011

In August 2010, Impulse, Shillong in collaboration with EQUATIONS, Bangalore and Sikkim University, Gangtok organized a “Regional Consultation on Responsible Tourism in the North Eastern States of India”. This was aimed at initiating a process of dialogue and perspectives on responsible tourism for the North Eastern Region to influence tourism policy and practice in the region.

In June 2010, KUONI in collaboration with EQUATIONS organized follow up workshops both in Kerala and Goa and invited management representatives of its hotel partners. The initial workshops in 2009 aimed to sensitise KUONI’s’ hotel partners about child sex tourism worldwide and in India. The workshops provided the hotel partners with information and the role the industry could play to combat this issue of sexual exploitation of children in tourism. The aim of the follow-up workshops in 2010 was to help the hotel partners of Kuoni to implement comprehensive measures for child protection within their operations. Furthermore, hotel partners of KUONI are encouraged to sign the child protection code “The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism” within a year.