Operators of classified homestays have demanded that they be permitted to tap and serve toddy. The demand comes in the wake of the State Cabinet deciding to issue licence to restaurants located in tourism locales to serve beer and wine during the tourist season, and to permit hotels rated three-star and upwards and resorts in such locales to tap palms on their premises and to serve toddy.
Referring to how toddy tapping is already a part of experiential tourism packages offered across Kerala, the homestay operators cite how toddy tapping as an experience has been part and parcel of the responsible-tourism framework. “Sadly, the excise rules do not permit us to serve to our guests the toddy tapped from coconut and palmyrah palms on our premises. This anomaly has continued for years, though much of the toddy that is sold through regular toddy shops is adulterated,” said M.P. Sivadattan, Director of Kerala Homestay and Tourism Society (Kerala-HATS).
Permit for wine sought
“With hotels and resorts being permitted to serve toddy, there is no reason why it cannot be served in classified homestays. This will enable foreign and domestic tourists who reside in homestays to savour unadulterated toddy tapped on the premises. The government must also permit classified homestays to brew wine through traditional methods from fruits and to serve it to guests, in keeping with its liquor policy,” he added.
Excise Minister M.B. Rajesh had on Wednesday announced that toddy produced in the State would be branded as ‘Kerala toddy’ and marketed as its traditional, natural beverage.
‘Extend to all seasons’
Former president of Tourism Professionals Club (TPC), George Scaria, who is also a guest lecturer teaching responsible tourism at a university in Austria, wondered why the policy had confined serving of liquor, beer and wine to the tourist season alone. “The traditional tourist season and the six-month off-season are a thing of the past since tourists are visiting Kerala almost round the year, thanks to climate change- induced change in seasons and the availability of e-visa to European tourists within 24 hours of applying. Infrastructure and personnel like bar-tenders cannot remain idle once the traditional tourist season is over.”
Hotels and others must be permitted to brew and serve beer, wine and toddy all through the year, with strict quality-control mechanisms in place, he said.
‘Do away with dry days’
Sources in Kerala Tourism said the agency was all the while pursuing the demand from tourists and other tourism stakeholders to make liquor, beer and wine available in hotels and other accommodation units, to woo tourists to the State for destination weddings and also for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) tourism. “Many of them are turned away due to adherence to ‘dry days’ like the first day of the month (when liquor is not served in hotels) and the 10 p.m. time limit to serve it on all days. An exemption has been sought for hotels and resorts from the rule.”
Only then can infrastructure like the convention centre readied at the KTDC-run Kumarakom Waterscapes for the G-20 Sherpas meet be made optimal use of. Time is also ripe for tapping the potential of neera as a health drink, failing which Kerala would lose out to Sri Lanka and other competitors, they added.
