The main attraction of Kinnigoli is nature. A small town surrounded by lush green scenery, gushing streams and jungles around, the eco diversity of the place has been maintained due to the caring attitude of the local populace. For the adventurous there are trekking trails through which one can trek to Mulky, Kateel, Mangalore, Suratkal and other places. There are plenty of swaying coconut palms, toddy palms and other types of trees all the way. There are two religious places worth visiting in Kinnigoli: One is the Sri Rama Mandir, established even before independence by the small GSB community and other is the Our Lady of Immaculate conception Church of Roman Catholic community which also has a chequered history. Addiionally the famous temples of Lord Venkataramana at Mulki is just 8 km away and that of Sri Durgaparameshwari temple just 3 km distant. Other temples in the vicinity include Punaroor temple 2 km from Kinnigoli and Bappanad close to Mulky 8km away Every Thursday, the local market comes alive with various types of vendors trading in fish, local produce, vegetables and dry fish. A yoga kendra is located couple of kilo meters from the bus stand which offers various types of courses as well as naturotherapy treatments. In addition, there are small hamlets like golijora, rajaratnapuram, padmanoor, punarooru, shibarooru, kuttettor, kilenjur which are basically clusters of people engaged in agriculture. The morning walks in the largely undistrubed junges of Tudam among the lap of the nature is really soothing. In winter months,usually in December-January, buffalo racing competition called "Kambala" is held in the water filled , post harvest, rice fields named "Kaantabare-Boodabare" in Aikala, just about 3 Km from Kinnigol which attracts hordes of spectators including tourists. The competition attracts well fed and trained water buffaloes from round the district and gold medallions along with cash are awarded as prizes. Keen competition and fighting spirit of the buffaloes,trainers and their owners is to be seen to be felt.
Kinnigoli can be called a truly education center. There is a primary school called St Marys Higher Primary School near the main church, which offers vernacular education up to 7th standard. Marywale convent offers English Co ed upto 8th standard whereas Little Flower High School offers Co ed upto 12th standard. Additionall Pompeii Junior College in Talipady has classes from 8th to 12th with choices in Arts , Humanities, Science and Computer education. Nearby located is the Pompeii College which offers undergraduate courses of BCom and BA only. Vijaya College in Mulki8 km offers BSc course also in addition. There is also a Rotary English medium school in a place called Moorukaveri where roads from Kateel, Moodabidri and Belman converge, hence "Mooru" or "Three" in local lingowhich offers education upto 10th standard. For further choices in English medium one can also try Narayanaguru English medium school in Mulky. The literacy levels in Kinnigoli is almost 100% compared to the national average of 50% or so.
There is a regular Kannada monthly called "Yugapurusha" published from Kinnigoli because of which Kinnigoli appears in the newspapers regularly. Thanks to its founder publisher and eminent scholar late Sri K A Udupa, this publication and its exploits have become household news. Various cultural activities and social welfare schemes are held regularly in the publications cultural hall. It has become the epicentre of all cultural activities in Kinnigoli and surrounding areas. The publication also conducts regular literary activities and meets in its premises, bringing in many well known faces of Kannada art, literature and known men of letters to Kinnigoli giving vent the intellectual pursuits of the average Kinnigolian. The exploits of Sri Uduapa are being continued by his son and present Editor of Yugapurusha, Sri Bhuvanabhiram Udupa, in great style and finesse.
The other facet for which Kinnigoli is known for is its "Unity and diversity". Despite the presence of various religious groups like Hindus, Catholics and Muslims and proliferations of languages from Kannada, Tulu, Konkani and Barry language an offshoot of Malayalam, Kinnigoli has been free from any communal tension over the years. Each community supports and in some cases actively encourage the religious activities of the other without any bias.
Due to the large number of Kinnigolians working abroad particularly in the middle east, there has been a large influx of foreign remittances to the small city. With a result, one can find a large number of stylish mansions and bungalows along the roads leading in and out of kinnigoli. However, despite the building boom, the ecosystem has been carefully preserved by taking care to see that trees are not destroyed and overall green cover remains untouched. As a result the place still retains its green cover and eco friendly habitat. For this one has to mainly thank the enterprising Catholics who have been in the forefront of ensuring the preservance of this eco system in and around their lovely mangaloe tiled homes.
There are hardly any employment avenues in Kinnigoli and hence the well educated and qualified young men tend to migrate to cities like Mumbai and Bangalore or overseas looking for greener pastures.The main business activity is agriculture, trading and running shops. However, the booming real estate sector is providing opportunities to skilled workers. However it has also led to influx of immigrants from North Karnataka, Kerala and other parts of the country looking for employment since most skilled local population is aborad. This is also leading into some sort of a shift in the demographic structure of the population though in a minor scale and also some resentment about "outside" influence. This has also created a peculiar situation wherein only the very young and very old are residing in the place whereas the cream of the youth is employed elsewhere and the economy is sustained by overseas remittances. For a city of such a small size, practically every known public sector bank like Canara, Syndicate, State Bank of India,Corporation bank have a presence here with their coffers overflowing with Non Resident Indian deposits running into hundreds of millions of Rupees. In addition there are a couple of Cooperative banks and a Catholic bank branch also.
The people of Kinnigoli are fiercely proud of their small little place, so much so that Governments proposal to include whole or parts of the city in a proposed multi billion dollar mammoth Petrochemical Industrial Region PCPIR is being met with stiff resistance. Protest meetings have already been organised and every possible action posstible to prevent acquisition of the agricultural and other land by the promoters of the PCPIR is being contemplated. Due to this fact it is unlikely that this city will see any organised industrial activity in the near future. The major industry which are close to Kinnigoli is a huge 8 million ton refinery of MRPLMangalore Refiners and Petrochemicals Ltd just about 5 Km distant as the crow flies. There is also a small scale industry called Canara lamps which produces electric lamps, fittings and fixtures about 3 Km from Kinnigoli. On the small scale, there are some rice mills which mill the local produce, mainly rice, and pack them for marketing locally or for selling in Mangalore markets. Employment in these rice mills is limited to unskilled manual labour only.Most of the population is engaged in agriculture. However, non availability of manpower, high costs of labour, lack of irrigation facilities and ageing population are ensuring that less and less of the land is being cultivated. The yields are also falling due to indiscrimate use of chemical fertilisers. The main crop is rice which is the staple food. Semi dry or "Kumeri" irrigation is also resorted to for growing sweet potatoes and fresh vegetables.
