Tourism Sector of Uttarakhand :

Tourism is the third largest economic activity in the world, surpassed only by oil and motor vehicles, and forms the largest activity in the services sector. While more than two-thirds of the global tourist arrivals and receipts are accounted for by developed countries, the contribution of tourism to third world economies is by no means insignificant. It is also one of the fastest growing sectors of the world economy.

The Uttarakhand economy is ideally situated to take advantage of this situation and scale up its tourism sector. The two inputs that are necessary for the development of this sector, i.e., natural and human capital, are abundantly available in the state. Thus, it has the potential to match the rise in tourism demand with an increase in supply of tourism services. While industrial and most services-related activity naturally flourish in areas that are already developed in terms of infrastructure, urbanization, etc, tourism can be developed in relatively underdeveloped areas, provided they have something of interest to the tourist. Uttarakhand is particularly well endowed in this respect and can develop various kinds of tourism activities. These include :

(i) Leisure tourism in the hill stations: There are a number of hill stations in the state including Nainital, Mussoorie, Almora, Kausani and Ranikhet that are currently established centres for leisure tourism. There are a number of other spots like Chakrata that can be further developed for these activities.

(ii )Religious tourism: The “Char Dham”, i.e., Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotry and Yamunatry are some of the most venerated religious places for the Hindus. The state can develop the tourist infrastructure in these places and along the roads leading up these places.

(iii) Adventure tourism: These activities include river-rafting, kayaking, skiing, trekking, paragliding, etc.The fast moving mountain rivers and the slopes in the higher ranges of the mountains provide ideal locations for these activities.

(iv) Nature and wildlife tourism: The state has a number of protected forests and sanctuaries, including the Corbett National Park, Rajaji National Park and the Valley of Flowers. These areas can be used to develop wildlife and nature tourism on the pattern of successful cases like Kenya.

Development of the tourism sector can help the local economy in a number of ways:

• The most important impact is the creation of employment for the local people. Employment will be created in the hotels, restaurants and other kinds of lodgings as well as in the tour operating sector. More importantly, employment will also be created through indirect channels in a variety of sectors including local handicrafts, etc.
•  Apart from employment creation, the sector can also increase the demand for fruits, vegetables and milk, etc. produced in the villages around tourist spots, for the consumption of the tourists. The development of this sector also provides tax revenues to the government in terms of user charges, etc., and this can be used for the development of the area. More importantly, a thriving tourism industry links up the hill areas with the rest of the country and brings down the social and economic isolation of the people.

 Negative effects of tourism  :

• The biggest problem with unregulated and unplanned growth in tourism is the environmental degradation that it can cause by the overuse of the natural capital. This will not only have an adverse impact on other productive activities in the mountains, but can destroy the future prospects of the tourism sector as well.
• Further, unregulated tourism puts a heavy burden on the urban infrastructure of tourist destinations, choking up roads, civic amenities, etc. This can cause the tourists and the local population severe hardships in the peak tourist seasons.

Ways to improve Tourism Sector :

It is clear that the tourism sector has to be developed extensively as a part of any policy programme for inclusive growth in Uttarakhand. However, the adverse impact of unregulated growth in this sector, particularly in terms of environmental degradation, cannot be ignored. Some important points to develop it are :

• In order to promote high-value tourism in the state, the sector has to provide a high quality tourism experience. The main attraction for tourists in the state is, of course, the Himalayas. The experience of watching the snow capped peaks from a close range is a sublime one, and the tourism infrastructure must make sure that this experience can be provided to the tourists without compromising on comfort, and in new and innovative ways.
•  Apart from developing the infrastructure of hill stations, this should involve aerial tours of the Himalayan ranges using helicopters. Of course, a high value tourist would want other forms of recreation as well, and this means that the state must offer a package of activities that will attract the tourist.
• The forest areas and the protected sanctuaries are ideal for the development of nature tourism. The upper ranges of the mountain can be used to develop adventure tourism with activities like skiing, paragliding, etc. The Mountain Rivers are also appropriate for the promotion of rafting, kayaking, etc. Most importantly, all these activities must be coordinated with the hotels and tour operators so that tourists find it simple and easy to opt for these activities. The development of tourism requires a lot of physical and human infrastructure.
•  The most important physical infrastructure for a hilly state like Uttarakhand is a network of good quality roads that connect all the tourist destinations. Deploying high quality bus services and encouraging car rental facilities can further develop the transport network. The connectivity of the destinations can be further improved by developing facilities for air taxi services by small aircrafts.
•  The human capital needed in this sector needs to be developed as well. This involves the training of tour guides, trekking attendants and instructors for activities like skiing, paragliding, rafting, etc. These jobs need technical expertise that may be imparted through vocational training centres. Overall, the tour operators and tourists agencies must be encouraged to corporatize and become more organized and professional.
• The most important factor for the development of high value tourism is the availability of quality hotels. While this sector should be developed through the private sector, there are some issues here that need policy intervention. The first problem is the availability of land. There may be a number of problems including land-use laws, environmental clearance, etc., and the state must act as a facilitator, enabling the private sector to acquire land for the development of hotels, lodges, etc. The other problem with the hotel industry is the seasonality of tourism leading to largely unused capacities and low returns during significant parts of the year. This problem may be dealt with by encouraging a policy of market segmentation coupled with price discrimination. This involves a separation or segmentation of different groups of consumers and charging different segments differently. For example, discounts on ‘standard prices’ such as reduced airfares for particular groups, viz., students, senior  citizens and so on. The tourism policy must also break the seasonal pattern by developing winter tourism.

It must be clearly understood that the development of high value tourism may not automatically lead to better livelihoods and incomes for the local people. If the tourism sector does not integrate itself with the hill economy, then the demand created by this sector will lead to an increase in incomes in the plains or in other parts of the country. The policy package for inclusive growth must ensure that the forward and backward linkages from this sector ensures growth in the local economy.

An optimal tourism policy will have to assess the volume and quality of tourism that will not cause environmental degradation or overuse of urban infrastructure in the tourist destinations, and hence will be sustainable in the long run. Once this is determined, the development of tourism should be on the basis of a planned approach that maintains this volume and quality of tourism, while trying to maximize the returns to the local economy – in terms of income and employment to the local people. In order to do this, the focus will have to be on high-value tourism, i.e., encouragement to those tourists who are capable of spending substantial amounts of money during their stay in these areas. These would obviously have to include the well-to-do tourists in the domestic sector and foreign tourists.