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The tourism industry in Kerala is primarily a service industry and a large proportion of those engaged in it find employment in the tertiary occupation. Not only that, this industry is marked by a widely differing economic performance. Tourism is dependent upon so many varied activities that a situation can arise “where weak links in the chain of services and facilities adversely affect the progress of otherwise healthy sectors of the industry”.

Tourism is a complex industry. It is an amalgamation of several phenomena and relationships. The above complexity arises from the movement of people to various destinations and the length of their stay in these destinations. Thus, in the former case, there is a dynamic element – the journey and in the latter case there is a static element – the stay. Again, the movement of the people is temporary and of short-term character. When embarking on a holiday Kerala offers much for people of all age groups. But the sad fact is that very few people have the right information in their hands on how to fruitfully utilize their visit to the prominent tourism centers.

Tourism is largely a non-remunerative, highly volatile business, strictly from the monetary point of view. When taking up employment in this sector, there is no idea as to how the business will fare or the particular vocation period will turn out to be. Thus in Kerala, tourism is a multi-dimensional activity. There are many and varied activities which make their own separate and individual contributions. These activities, although separate, are inter-dependent, which require cooperative efforts and common policies.

Very recently, a new trend is visible in the tourism sector, which is known as ‘mobile camp-tourism’ or open air-hotels. This form of tourism is most popular in certain European countries which provide a form of supplementary accommodation. These ‘camps’ are usually located within the cities in open spaces. They provide facilities for parking, tent-pitching, water, electricity, toilet etc. They are equipped to receive the mobile form of accommodation used by the tourist. As such, they are within the towns and therefore, it is easy for the tourists to move around for their basic necessities. In some camps, there are cooking facilities also.