Religious tourism needs sustainable infrastructure

We live in an era where economic growth has fuelled an exponential rise in domestic tourism, with recreational travel now becoming an integral part of the work culture as well as the social norm.

Increased accessibility, improved infrastructure and growing aspirations have seen the industry mature over the years. And tourism has been one of the sectors that has witnessed a complete transformation with the surge of information technology over the last two decades.

However, on-ground infrastructure and service delivery has not been able to keep up pace with rapid innovations in sales and marketing channels, and popular Indian destinations now face stiff competition from their neighbouring Asian counterparts.

Religious tourism stands out in this backdrop. With travel motivations rooted deeply in socio-cultural aesthetics, it has few rivals in terms of product offering.

Also, each destination has a unique significance and characteristic, with a mix of both ‘loyal’ and ‘new’ consumer bases. The paradox here arises from the demand side skew, the large number of seasonal tourists creating resource oversupply and unemployment for most of the year, and unregulated visitor numbers leading to seasonal strain on environmental resources.

Tourism carrying capacity The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) defines tourism carrying capacity (TCC) as the “maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time without causing damage to the physical, economic, socio-cultural environment and an unacceptable decrease in visitor satisfaction”.

The focus is on estimating visitor numbers and ensuring a cap on them and commensurate economic gains by enriching product and service quality. TCC encompasses five major parameters.

Physical carrying capacity estimates the number of visitors that can ‘fit’ into a location or a site at a given point of time. In urban landscapes and monuments, heritage sites etc, this is assumed to be ~1m per person.

Economic carrying capacity relates to the extent of tourist-led economic activity infringing on local business, and inflationary changes caused by these functions.

Social carrying capacity measures the local community’s tolerance towards tourists. Doxey’s Irritation Index, elucidating the Euphoria-Apathy-Annoyance-Antagonism cycle, is a commonly used evaluation tool.

Biophysical carrying capacity pertains to the ecosystem’s ability to regenerate. And Environmental carrying capacity measures capacity of resources, ecosystems and possible infrastructural development.

Religious tourism is the core driving force behind the domestic market. In addition to the economic value, it fosters communal harmony and leads to a cleaner social environment.

However, recent years have seen the emergence of detrimental aspects like massive environmental degradation, poor sanitation and tourist harassment.

While large-scale infrastructure creation for the lower and mid-segment tourist has led to oversupply, lack of infrastructure catering to higher categories and long-haul visitors has resulted in lost revenue opportunities.

Sustainable infrastructure Despite these challenges, pilgrimages and spiritual travel will sustain visitor numbers, and the time is ripe to put a sustainable socio-economic infrastructure in place.

The recent spate of natural calamities has pointed to a need to immediately look at the existing tourist numbers and consider a short- to medium-term reduction in tourist flow for economic and environmental regeneration.

Owing to the ‘mass’ nature of pilgrimages and the innate travel motivation, levying economic barriers through higher entrance charges is not a viable option.

Pilgrimages such as the Amarnath Yatra and the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra have devised selection procedures within these constraints that have achieved good success, but there is a lot of potential to further improve on-ground implementation.

Policy and institutions Governments across the country have also taken due cognisance of this important aspect. Several States have conducted extensive studies of their pilgrimage sites. On its part, the Ministry of Tourism recently issued a request for proposal for a Study on the Tourism Carrying Capacity of Existing and Potential Destinations for Planning for Infrastructure Development in Uttarakhand.

Our socio-cultural tapestry finds its roots in one of the oldest civilisations in the world, and the innate spirituality that forms the pillar of our national conscience will keep on driving religious tourism .

However, it has also exposed the grave threats of unregulated tourist movement, and it should be our topmost priority to establish mechanisms that ensure sustainable incomes through tourism at the grassroots without negatively impacting our cultural and environmental heritage.

The writer is Senior President and Global Convenor of the YES Institute

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