Question

What is the importance of ecotourism in India?

Answer 1

the past few years, the travel and tourism industry has been on an exponential rise in India and abroad, primarily because of the vast knowledge sharing happening via social media like Facebook, Twitter. A lot of other factors like better transport connectivity, a rise in luxury budget hotels have also supported the growth of the travel and tourism industry.

A lot of Startups have come up and are offering various perks and discounts to the customer in the form of promotional e-cash, flight miles, voucher coupons if the customer books through their website. This all provides a win-win situation for both the company and the customer, and the customer slowly gets bitten by the travel bug.

Once the customer comes out of his shell and starts travelling, he starts exploring the unexplored beauty of different places, becomes an extrovert and starts socialising with the localities and fellow travellers. This unleashes a wide range of possibilities to travel and explore without creating a hole in the pocket.

However, this rise of the travel industry has also resulted in the deterioration of certain places which were quaint and beautiful at one point in time but now are flooded with tourists and the natural beauty has degraded.

Locations in Himachal Pradesh like McLoedganj, Triund, Kasol, Kheerganga, Manali have become flooded with tourists as these places are located just a couple of hours journey from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. The tourists which come in a flock usually leave the place dirty and messy with their litter and ruin the natural beauty of the destination.

Hence Eco Tourism is the need of the hour.

But what is Eco-Tourism?

Fundamentally, eco-tourism means making a little environmental impact as possible and helping to sustain the indigenous populace, thereby encouraging the preservation of wildlife and habitats when visiting a place. This is a responsible form of tourism and tourism development, which encourages going back to natural products in every aspect of life. It is also the key to sustainable ecological development.

The International Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people."

It's high time one needs to be conscious towards the environment and make sure that his leisure activities won't harm the natural beauty of the place.