Courtesy : www.conservationindia.org

Eco-tour research

Tourism is one of the largest economic sectors world over, with a direct contribution of 3.1% to GDP and generating USD 7.6 trillion and 300 million jobs. Tourism related revenues from entry fee alone in 10 national parks in India ranged between USD 7000 to USD 300,000 in 2007-08. In 2012, the erstwhile Planning Commission identified tourism as the second largest provider of employment to low and semi skilled labour with a contribution of 6% to the country’s GDP. The annual growth rate for tourism industry in India is predicted to be 8.8% between 2011 and 2021 by the World Travel and Tourism Council. Given the earning potential, the state, the centre and private entities have promoted various forms of nature based tourism around protected areas. However current approaches to nature based tourism (also referred to as ecotourism hereinafter) have offered limited benefits to conservation, protected areas and local communities. The Guidelines for Tourism in and around Protected Areas issued by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) continue to remain on paper.

Further, while increase in ecotourism based enterprises in India has seen concurrent increase in associated conceptual and applied research with the potential to inform policy towards a sustainable ecotourism model, it currently lacks evaluation. Mahi Puri, Krithi K Karanth and Brijesh Thapa undertake this evaluation of tourism centric research in India in their study published in the Journal of Ecotourism on May 21, 2018.

Objectives of the Study

1. Classification of broad themes under which studies have been conducted to understand scope of ecotourism research;
2. Categorization of prominent reasons for adopting ecotourism;
3. Evaluation of whether principles of ecotourism are incorporated in their assessments of practices; and
4. Identification of gaps in ecotourism research to facilitate long term planning and monitoring of ecotourism initiatives.

Methodology

The methodology consisted of qualitative and quantitative analysis of peer reviewed articles published since 2005 through a literature search conducted via Google Scholar and Web of Science search engines using key words. Articles post 2005 were emphasized as the Tiger Task Force published its report recognizing non compliance of environmental standards in tourism and providing policy recommendations on the same in this year. Accordingly, 30 studies on various aspects of ecotourism were identified and reviewed.

Further:

• For classifying studies under broad themes, the following 3 research themes were identified through a thematic analysis and iterative process viz., (a) Potential for Ecotourism (i.e., site specific assessments on potential as ecotourism destination in future), (b) Impact assessment of nature based tourism (i.e., studies on tourism around protected areas but without categorically identifying prevailing tourism practices as ecotourism) and (c) Evaluation of an ecotourism based initiative (i.e., studies specific to established ecotourism projects such as the World Bank funded India Eco-Development project).
• To identify motivations behind established/existing ecotourism projects, the historical context for adoption was examined.
• To evaluate incorporation of ecotourism principles in assessments, various principles described in several studies were combined into 4 core principles viz., (a) environmental protection / wildlife and nature conservation, (b) community participation, (c) socio-economic development, and (d) education and awareness.