The future of India's tourism sector depends on a delicate balance between ecological integrity and economic growth, but it needs to be addressed now
Recently the Mayor of the picturesque Santorini Island in Greece had to declare an emergency as 17000 tourists descended on the island in one day. The beleaguered residents of the island were advised to stay indoors as swarms of tourists took over the hapless location putting immense stress on infrastructure, accommodation and the local environment including the verdant beaches. This has triggered protests by the locals who took out rallies holding placards that read “no more mass tourism.”
Overtourism is characterised by increased pollution and strain on resources like water and energy in a destination that is overwhelmed by an excessive number of tourists, to a point where it negatively affects the local environment, biodiversity, and infrastructure. The telling impact of overtourism is evident in India too. Every year the popular hill stations of north India such as Kullu, Manali and Mussoorie witness serpentine tourist traffic jams that extend over many kilometres to gain entry to these towns.
Thanks to this excess footfall the average ambient temperatures have gone up in many of the Himalayan tourist hot spots. The rising temperatures in these locations have in turn altered the weather patterns. Over the last two decades, the Indian Himalayan region has experienced a consistent decline in snowfall days, severely affecting destinations such as Gulmarg and Auli, which have seen a decrease in skiing tourists and shorter seasons, resulting in lower revenue and local economic strain. Even far-flung religious destinations such as Joshimath have not been immune to this heavy tourism torture with over 10 crore people visiting this revered Himalayan town every year resulting in ecological issues such as land subsidence and crumbling biodiversity. Down south popular tourist states such as Kerala are experiencing the painful consequences of rampant tourism. The above-normal rainfall combined with indiscriminate human activity in the form of tourism resulted in a change in land use patterns in the plantation areas across Kerala.
The God’s on Country became a victim of human greed as over-tourism led to increased demand for hotels, restaurants and related businesses. Consequently, indiscriminate building activity on hillsides, exploitation of land and deforestation took place leading to irreversible damage to the environment besides terrain instability issues. The recent tragedy in Wayanad is an unfortunate example that consumed 500 lives and left 400 people injured besides causing immense loss of property.
The unfortunate impact of tourism is accurately captured by the findings of the French start-up Murmuration specialising in monitoring the environmental impact of tourism using satellite data. The firm has stated that 80% of tourists visit just 10% of the world’s tourist spots leading to bigger crowds in fewer locations. If this trend continues, the United Nations World Tourist Organisation (UNWTO) estimates that by 2030, the number of worldwide tourists, which peaked at 1.5 billion in 2019, will reach 1.8 billion. Furthermore, by 2030 the transport-related carbon emissions from tourism are expected to grow by 25% from 2016 levels. Some countries like Australia have taken broad steps to address the issue. The Australian eco-certification programme for instance promotes minimal environmental impact tourism, which helps tourists make responsible travel choices. South Africa on the other hand supports ethical tourism through its fair-trade tourism certification, which ensures fair wages and working conditions in tourism enterprises. Closer home, Bhutan has adopted a “high value, low volume” policy, which serves a dual purpose and involves a daily fee paid by tourists, which helps fund local community services and limits tourist numbers to prevent over-tourism.
However, India has unique problems and needs more specific and aggressive measures to rein in the issue of overtourism. The beginning point can be the tourism supply chain sector comprising travel companies, cruise companies, ticketing firms and package tour providers. These entities must bear a fair share of responsibility for ensuring a balanced tourist traffic flow across the destinations in India.
This can be done by abstaining from overselling usual tourist destinations and redirecting travellers to other locations. This will prevent overcrowding of a few traditional tourist hot spots and bring down environmental stress.The tourism ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of environment working in tandem can employ innovative initiatives to protect the ecology and biodiversity of popular tourist destinations.
This partnership can start by first regulating the tour and ticketing companies. This can be ended by registering each tourist operator and weeding out illegal entities.
The dual ministry partnership can usher in a new era of environmentally conscious tourism. As a part of this, both the ministries can provide unique and non-transferable registration IDs to tourism companies and then periodic workshops can be held for these bonafide members to sensitise them about ecology, biodiversity and climate change issues.
As a part of this partnership, the ministries can also develop algorithm-based software for the tourism sector companies that helps in automatically limiting the tourist flow to popular destinations by limiting hotel and transport availability after a certain quota of tourists are accommodated. This can go a long way in reducing the tourist burden on the environment in these destinations.
(The author is a policy analyst. The views are personal)
