It is the need of the hour to regulate unmanaged tourism activities to maintain the ecological balance and facilitate tourism
Photo: iStock Natural environment, local culture and geographically diverse habitats are the major attractions of hilly areas. Globalisation, advances in transportation and communications technologies have helped the tourism industry flourish.
The number of international tourists was 1.46 billion in 2019 and will be more than 1.8 billion in 2030, according to the 2020 statistics of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
But tourism development is a double-edged sword, since it has positive impacts (employment, infrastructure development, revenue generation) as well as negative impacts (water pollution, air pollution, ecosystem degradation, loss of the traditional culture) on the local communities and biotic and abiotic environment, if it is not planned or managed well.
In the early 1970s, tourism was considered a ̒smoke-less industry̕, utilising natural and cultural resources without any adverse impacts on them. Later, increased population, continuous unregulated tourism and the development of infrastructure have put a strain on the destinations. Every destination has its carrying capacity to absorb various tourist activities as well as population.
According to UNWTO (1999), tourism carrying capacity is “the maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time, without destroying the physical, economic, socio cultural environment and an unacceptable decrease in the quality of visitors satisfaction”.
Studies have shown that there are five major components of carrying capacity: First, physical carrying capacity (PCC) is concerned with the maximum number of people at any destination. Second, social carrying capacity (SCC) is the perceptual, psychological or behavioral capacity of a place. Third, infrastructure carrying capacity (ICC) describes facility capacity as those man-made improvements intended to handle visitors or people's needs, including parking lots, boat ramps, developed campgrounds, restrooms and administrative personnel. Fourth, environmental carrying capacity (ECC) is the number of tourists or people who can undertake activities on a site without causing degradation of the natural environment. Last, economic carrying capacity (ECC) relates to the level of acceptable changes within the local economy of a tourist destination. It is also relating to situations where a resource is simultaneously utilised for outdoor recreation and economic activity.
In the context of India, tourism is a big industry with religious and spiritual values. In the region of Asia and the Pacific, India accounted for 28.23 per cent share of total tourist arrivals in 2021.
Mountain areas have the most significant potential for the development of tourism. The Himalayan states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand play a very important role in the development of tourism.
No doubt, tourism is to be a vehicle for sustainable poverty reduction at high altitudes in the Himalayas. However, the unplanned exploitation of resources is destroying the basic functionalities of the ecosystem and creates a risk of losing the destination's recovery capacities.
All these issues are associated with the ‘magic number’ of tourists that visit certain destinations. At this point, the concept of carrying capacity arose and it gives an idea of the threshold of tourists that can be accepted at a destination. This approach is essential to regulate and manage tourism activities.
Recently, this concept has received significant attention since the world has faced many tragedies at renowned religious destinations such as Naina Devi temple (2008) and Kedarnath temple (2013) in India and Mecca (2015) in Saudi Arabia.
A water crisis occurred in June 2018 at famous tourist destinations Shimla and Manali in the Himalayas. A few years ago, the Archaeological Survey of India began restricting the number of tourists visiting the Taj Mahal to 40,000 daily.
The unplanned development of infrastructure affects the destination’s natural aesthetic attractions and creates a situation of losing the recovery capacities of the ecosystem. Mass tourism also affects the natural cycles of destinations and over time, it can worsen the impacts of climate change such as the melting of glaciers.
Today, all the hilly areas are facing a crucial period; there have been several landslides during the rainy season, for instance.
In this context, the carrying capacity should be a basic component of planning for any tourist destination and has been considered as the benchmark for tourism regulation as well as management.
Although a lot of efforts have been made by the government and private organisations to improve tourist spots as well as manage the tourism impacts, they fall short of the requirements.
To control unwanted activities, an assessment of carrying capacity is used to judge the tourism impact on space and the environment. It represents an important component of planning spatial development in tourism and is one of the mechanisms to establish the standards for sustainable tourism.
It is the need of the hour to regulate unmanaged tourism activities to maintain the ecological balance and facilitate tourism. This is especially required for the ecologically fragile areas of the mountains.
In addition, to gain long-term benefits, the assessment of tourism impacts provides a better understanding aimed at appropriate management of tourism benefits as well as costs. To address this issue, estimate the specific tourism carrying capacity for each destination of whole hilly areas, which has the potential to emerge as a hub of tourist activities soon.
The estimation of tourism carrying capacity should help establish mechanisms leading to the participation of performers connected to the high altitudes. This, in turn, can contribute to a pertinent eco-friendly tourism proposal that would be important for the welfare of hilly areas.
Ravinder Jangra is assistant professor at Kurukshetra University, Haryana.
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.
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