CHAPTER - I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 TOURISM – THE GENERAL OVERVIEW

For centuries, travel has been an insatiable urge in man to gain knowledge,
trade, pilgrimage and foremost search for peace through all routes of the boundaries.
But owing to scanty means of available transport with lack of other facilities and
safety coupled with meager sources of finances and time during olden days of history,
it was largely confined to the privilege class of society who were able to purchase all
the necessities and transportation facilities prevailing at that time. The Chinese
travelers Fahien and Heun Tsang in the ancient period and many Africans and
Europeans travelers from Morocco, Egypt, Italy, and France respectively visited India
during the middle age of history. The emergence of European adventurers and
explorers who were very strongly motivated by the curiosity and gain for new
knowledge contribute to the global voyages. In terms of creativity, concept and
philosophy, Columbus, Marco Polo, Nicolo Conti, and Vasco Da Gama etc. further
strengthened the fabric and dimensions of travel.

The word Tourism as a human activity traced back to the history of human
travelling long for food, shelter and cloth from the wild beasts and nature. The travel
in its early stage was largely carried out on foot for nearby and far flung areas but in
medieval times travel on long voyages, exploration of new societies and exotic lands,
urge to view alien lands and prevailing cultures or to investigate bounties of nature.
The construction of highways by Romans, the European voyagers and many other
explorers, travelers, missionaries and traders further added new dimensions to travel.
Towner (1985) discussed that the history of tourism begins with the affluent people of
ancient Greeks and Romans. Towner (1985) “identified that between 1820 and 1830
were quite important periods for the transformation of tourist development
programmes in the organised sector”.

The spread of modern education, industrialization and urbanisation, the

renaissance movement, the Grand Tour of Europe, the emergence of concept of spa,
the conduct of package tour by Thomas Cook-the first travel agent in 1855

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encouraged the civil societies to develop recreation, fun and entertainment for their
leisure and enjoyment”. Leisure is the free time available at their disposal for
recreation from indoor or outdoor recreation activity whereas “tourism is a
supplementing segment of outdoor recreation involving the travelling from one place
to another. Several perspectives like ecological, biological, geographical, social,
scientific, technological and commercial also motivated people to travel as a fun,
leisure and hobby.

In the modern global village more and more people desires to escape from the
byproducts of monotonous and mechanized life of society. The modern civil society is
being forced to make travel and tourism both a definite compulsion and changes in
their lifestyle due to urbanization, social alienation, over-crowding, boredom,
industrialization, noise, air and water pollution. The development and exponential
growth of modern tourism can be credited to the new innovations in the field of
technology, increasing facilitation in financial transaction, innovation in Information
and Communication Technology (ICT), digital marketing, involvement of media
(traditional and social media), swift and comfortable transportation, social changes
like late marriages, rising disposable income, more disposable time for fun and
leisure.

Over the time, the concept of tourism has undergone through paradigm shift in
approach, understanding and as an activity. Research has further proved that “the
inhabitants of industrial and metropolitan cities are most curious to escapers from
their routine environment on weekends and annual holidays” (Shinde, 2008). Further
increasing curiosity about leisure and the dynamics of political, economic, cultural,
business and trade related circumstances compel the people to travel.

1.2 DEFINITIONS OF TOURISM

The concept and origin of the new word ‘tour’ has been derived from Latin
word ‘tornus’, with meaning “circulating trip or a journey at which one returns to the
originating point”. Various organisations and academicians have made significant
efforts to delineate the concept of tourism in their own way.

The League of Nations 1937 briefly explained that tourism encompasses “the
social activities of those people also who travel even for small period of 24 hours or

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more in a country away from his of her own”. However this definition excludes the
domestic tourism and emphasis only on international form of tourism.
(Theobald,1998)

Hunziker & Krapf (1942) described ‘Tourism’ as “the sum of the phenomena
and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, in so far as they do
not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity.”

The Rome Conference on Tourism (1963) accepted and replaced the term
‘tourist’ with the ‘visitor’ while defining tourism as a “visit to a country other than
one’s own or where one usually resides and work, due to the reasons like tourism and
excursion”. The word ‘tourism’ included the activity of temporary visitors with their
stay atleast24 hours for “leisure, business, family or meeting”.

The International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism (AEIST, 1981)

described that “Tourism may be defined in terms of particular activity selected by
choice and undertaken outside the home environment. Tourism may or may not
involve overnight stay away from home.”

The UN World Tourism Organization expresses comprehensive view about

the term tourism “Any person residing within a country, irrespective of nationality,
travelling to a place within this country other than his usual place of residence for a
period of not less than twenty four hours or one night for a purpose other than the
exercise of a remunerated activity in the place visited. The motive for such travel may
be leisure (recreation, holidays, health, studies, religion, sports); business, family,
mission, meeting” (UNWTO, 1981).

Smith (1992), explained “Tourism as an activity dependent on three operative

elements- discretionary income, leisure time and special sanctions permissive of
travels”.

These above given definitions reflect the compounded domain and broader
scope of tourism whereas coexistence of differentiated definitions often creates a
sense of uncertainty among the academicians and international organisations,
especially to present a uniform theoretical input. In order to get synchronization and
understanding on a single definition the UNWTO has contributed significantly again
in 1994 the most acceptable definition, criterion, terminology and pertains to the

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various aspects of tourism. “Tourism comprises the activities of persons travelling
to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one
consecutive year for leisure, business, education, learning or other purposes”
(WTO, 1994).

This definition encompasses three main domains namely movement

(minimum and maximum time limit of movement) stay and purpose of movement but
this definition exclude the purpose pertains to the undertaking of remuneration based
activities in the visiting place.

1.3 COMPONENTS OF TOURISM

The basic components are three A’s namely Attraction, Accessibility

(transport), and Accommodation. Attraction consists of natural and man-made
attractions. Further, man-made attractions include tangible and intangible elements.
Traditions, rituals, religious movements, pilgrimage tourism, fairs and festivals are the
vital components of intangible elements. Accessibility indicates towards the transport
(air, road, rail and water) and provision of roads, airports, seaports and railway
networks along with local transport for sightseeing. Accommodation comprised of
mainstream and supplementary accommodation to provide lodging and boarding
facilities to the visitors. The souvenirs industry provides handicrafts, handloom
products and cultural artifacts. In addition, the auxiliary components supports tourism
are banking, insurance and information and communication technology (ICT) services
to facilitates 24X7, online, swiftly, customized and paperless bookings of hotels,
transport (for accessibility and sightseeing) with online financial transaction, digital
marketing and promotional services including virtual tours of tourism destinations and
attractions.

1.4 TYPES AND FORMS OF TOURISM

Tourism is mainly categorized into two types namely international tourism and
domestic tourism. International tourism means visit to a foreign country with valid
passport, visa, health documents and foreign currency. International tourism further
divides into inbound and outbound tourism. Other major forms of tourism are special
interest tourism (SIT), independent tourism, mass tourism, wild life tourism, eco-
tourism, rural tourism, urban tourism, mass tourism, sustainable tourism, leisure

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tourism, business tourism and other miscellaneous categories viz. MICE
tourism/event management, wedding destinations, adventure tourism- land, air and
water based, medical tourism, wellness cruise tourism, beach tourism, spiritual
tourism and cultural tourism, ethnic tourism. The modern day tourism is the complex
mixture of the above-said multiple forms of tourism while undertaking tour by the
visitors.

1.5 GLOBAL TOURISM SCENARIO

The international tourism has seen unprecedented growth over the years and
reached to the 1460 million from 982 million in 2011. The number of international
tourist arrivals in the Asia-Pacific region is 360.7 millions in 2019 in comparison of
217 million in 2011. United Nations World Tourism Organisation forecasts that the
“tourism sector is expected to continue growing 3.3% annually until 2030 a year in
which 1.8 billion tourists will cross borders” (UNWTO, 2019).

Table 1.1: International Tourist Arrivals in the World and the Asia Pacific
Region

WORLD

Segment Number of tourists Annual growth

(in Millions) rate
(in percentage)
Number of internationals tourists 1460 3.6%
arrivals

ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
Number of international tourist arrival 360.7 3.7%
(Source: India Tourism Statistics at a glance, 2020, Ministry of Tourism, Govt of India)

But, it is evident from the situations emerged from the global medical
emergency due to COVID-19 pandemic spreads throughout the world the
international tourism industry slowed down to Nil from March 2020 to intermittent
negligible travel movements till March 2021 and lockdown again in April 2021 to
June, 2021. Again the International tourist arrivals increased by 58% in the quarter
ending on September 2021compared to the same period of 2020, these data were
remained 64% below the same period of 2019. While the latest rebound is
encouraging amidst the fear of newly discovered COVID-19 variant Omicron could
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disrupt the global tourism once again (UNWTO, 2021) in next few months. Looking
ahead UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili quoted that “we cannot let our
guard down and need to continue our efforts to ensure equal access to vaccinations
make use digital vaccination certificates to facilitate mobility and continue to support
the sector.

1.6 INDIAN TOURISM

The deep roots of Tourism in India are lying in the Sanskrit literature –
“ATANA” means going out, generating – TIRTHATANA (going out religious places
for spiritual purposes) (KALYAN, 2011) “PARYATANA” means (tripping for fun,
leisure and curiosity) and “DESHATANA” (going out of one’s country for livelihood
earning) (Prajapati B., 2016). The tourism continued to be a sequence of travel for
spiritual,, religious, business, leisure and the provision of services for travel and allied
services. During ancient and medieval age, religious and worship travel was widely
accepted for missionary purposes in respect of all religions of the globe and
discovered ancient routes of the business and trade. India stands at 8th place at global
level in respect of contributions to GDP from Tourism sector. This sector provided
employment directly and indirectly to 2.67 crore people in 2018 and it may further
increase up to 5.3 crores during the next decade (Dainik Bhaskar, 2019).

Presently more than one billion traveled to different places (UNWTO, 2019)
and more than 1600 million domestic tourists and more than 10 million foreign
tourists visited India in the year of 2019 (India, 2019).“Adventure, eco-tourism and
MICE is rapidly growing weekend travel to nearby hillsides especially by singles and
professionals in the form of solo travelers rather than overcrowded destinations”.
“Group travel by senior citizens, women only group, school children and college
students is also increasing at a fast pace.

Further, the paid holidays for government employees and travel incentives to
private sector employees and distributors, increasing number of honeymoon goers,
Pilgrimage is being added with leisure multiple trips in a year, “late marriage, baby
boomers, tech-savvy youngsters, Z-generation, empty nesters, singles living far from
home for education and professionals, couples without children, double income group
families etc. boosts tourism in India.

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 INDIA’S POSITION IN WORLD AND ASIA PACIFIC REGION

Table 1.2: India’s Position in World and Asia-Pacific Region.

Segment World Asia-Pacific

Percentage Rank Percentage Rank

Indian share in International 1.23% 23RD 4.97% 8TH

Tourist Arrivals

India’s share in International 2.03% 12TH 6.78% 6TH

Tourist receipts (in $ terms)

(Source: India Tourism Statistics at a glance, 2020, Ministry of Tourism, Govt of India)

It is evident from the table 1.2 that India have 23rd rank in the whole world and
8th rank in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of international tourist arrivals while in
terms of tourist receipts India has 12th rank in world and 6th rank in the Asia-pacific
region.

Table 1.3: International tourism receipts and its growth

REGION Receipts (in Billions $) Annual growth rate (%)

WORLD 1478 1.4%

ASIA-PACIFIC 443.1 1.6%

INDIA 30.05 5.1%

(Source: India Tourism Statistics at a glance, 2020, Ministry of Tourism, Govt of India)

A brief description of the comparison of the international tourist’s receipts and its
growth rate of the World, Asia- Pacific and India in the table 1.3 has shown that India
has more annual growth rate of 5.1% in comparison of 1.4% of the world over and
1.6% of the Asia-Pacific region.

1.6.1 Inbound Tourism

The volume of inbound tourism is increasing reached to its best ever mark by
achieving 17.91 million tourists in 2019 as comparison of 2011 as shown in table 1.4
given below:

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 Table 1.4: India’s Inbound Tourism and its share in World (2011-2019)

Year International Tourist Percentage (%) share Rank of India

Arrivals (in millions) of India in World in World

2011 6.31 0.63 38

2012 6.58 0.63 41

2013 6.97 0.64 41

2014 13.11 1.15 24

2015 13.77 1.15 24

2016 15.02 1.21 26

2017 16.81 1.26 26

2018 17.42 1.24 22

2019 17.91 1.23 23

(Source: UNWTO, Barometer, 2019)

As it is evident from the table 1.4 given above and the figure 1.1 given below,
number of international tourist arrivals reached to its best ever mark by achieving
17.91 million tourists in 2019 as comparison of 2011. Though, the growth rate has
been slowing down to nil from March 2020 onwards due to COVID-19 pandemic
worldwide.

Figure 1.1: Bar chart of international tourist arrivals

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 Figure 1.2: Pie Chart of percentage share of Indian in the world

The table 1.4 given above and pie chart in figure 1.2 shows that the percentage
share of India has increased from 0.63 in 2011 to 1.23 in 2019 of World tourism.
However, in the year of 2017, it was 1.26% share of India in world tourism.

1.6.2 Outbound Tourism

The outbound tourism in India is increasing with the vibrant in Indian

economy that contributes an excellent boost in the income of middle class population
and rising young population comprising of tech-savvy, Gen-Z and professionals who
have more propensity to travel. Consequently increase in their disposable income and
wealth of middle class and disposable time with them offers an excellent opportunity
for tourism marketers to thrive their business. Further, improving general and tourism
infrastructure and competitive low cost airlines boosts affordable and accessible
outbound tourism from India are the major factors of motivation to go on holiday
(Global Data, 2021).

Major outbound markets of India are European countries, Oceania (New

Zealand, Australia, Fiji), United States of America (USA), Canada, Russia, middle-
east countries (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman),

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ASEAN countries (Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia), Maldives, Mauritius, South
Africa, Kenya, Brazil, Central Asian countries and various other countries (Bureau of
Immigration, Govt of India, 2019).Presently, in COVID pandemic scenario, the
dismal picture for Indian outbound tourism shows the drastically decreasing volume
of outbound tourists from 27 million in 2019 to 7 million in 2020.

The certain economic projections depicts that in the post pandemic era, the
future of India’s outbound tourism is very bright owing to thriving economy of India
which has tremendous potential of resilience with recovery in 2024.The trends of
Indian outbound tourism has given below in table 1.5:

Table 1.5 Volume of Outbound Tourism from India (2011 to 2020)

Year Number of outbound tourism (in Percentage change over

millions) the previous year

2011 13.99 7.7

2012 14.99 6.7
2013 16.63 11.4
2014 18.33 10.3
2015 20.38 11.1
2016 21.87 7.3
2017 23.94 9.5
2018 26.30 9.8
2019 26.92 2.4
2020 07.00 - 25.92
2024 28.5 (predicted)
Source: Bureau of Immigration, Govt of India, 2020 & Global Data, 2021.

It is expected that the volume of outbound tourism may increase up to 28.5

million (Global Data, 2021) and have potential to make growth of worth US $ 40
billion by 2026 (ResearchAndMarket.com, 2021)

1.6.3 Domestic Tourism

Domestic tourism continues to be an important contributor to the tourism

industry in India. As per the data furnished by State, Union Territories, and the

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Ministry of Tourism, there were 2321.98 million domestic tourists visits all over the
country during the year 2019 (Annual Report, 2020-2021, Ministry of Tourism, Govt
of India).

Table 1.6: Volume of Domestic Tourist Visits to States/Union Territories

(2011-2019)

Year Volume of Domestic Percentage(%) change over

Tourist Visits the previous year.

2011 864.53 15.6

2012 1045.05 20.9

2013 1142.53 9.3

2014 1282.80 12.3

2015 1431.97 11.6

2016 1615.39 12.8

2017 1657.55 2.6

2018 1853.79 11.8

2019 (Provisional) 2321.98 25.3

(Source: Ministry of Tourism, Govt of India)

The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) predicted about the contribution of
travel and tourism sector’s to the economy of India is expected to rise from Rs. 15.24
trillion (US$ 234.03 Billion) in 2017 to Rs. 32.05 trillion (US$ 492.21Billion) in
2028. Pilgrimage and spiritual tourism is one of the biggest potential market for
domestic travel nearly 60 % of domestic tourism in India is religion based (IBEF
Report, 2018). To complement this emerging trend, the government released
special budget for to strengthen basic infrastructure around religious and
pilgrimage sites (Ixigo, 2018). “The Government has been making serious efforts to
boost investments also in tourism sector” (IBEF, 2018).

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 Table 1.7: Volume and Share of top 10 States/Union Territories in Domestic
Tourism in 2019

Rank State/Union Domestic Tourist Visits in 2019 (P)

Territory
Volume of Tourists Percentage share (%)
1 Uttar Pradesh 535855162 23.1

2 Tamilnadu 484865257 21.3

3 Andhra Pradesh 2370551508 10.2

4 Karnataka 227934714 9.8

5 Maharashtra 149294703 6.4

6 West Bengal 92366026 4.0

7 Madhya Pradesh 88707139 3.8

8 Telangana 83035984 3.6

9 Gujarat 58864661 2.5

10 Rajasthan 52220431 2.2

Total of top 10 states 2020195494 87.0

Other states/UTs 301787169 13

Total 2321982663 100

(Source: Indian Tourism Statistics, 2020)

Annual Tourists Arrivals and its Annual Growth Rate

The international and domestic tourism has seen unprecedented growth over the
years. During 2019 international tourist arrivals was 10.93 million and domestic
tourists visits remains 2321.98 million tourists visited to different states and Union
Territories. The growth of both domestic and international tourist arrivals (2011-
2019) is shown in the table 1.8 given below:

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 Table 1.8: Annual Tourists Arrivals (2011-2019) and its annual growth rate

INDIA
Segment Number of Annual growth
tourists (in rate(in percentage)
Millions)
Number of foreign tourist arrivals in 10.93 3.5%
India
Non-resident Indians arrivals in India 6.98 1.6%
International Tourists arrivals 17.91 2.8%
Indian Nationals departure from India 26.92 2.4%
Domestic tourists visited to different 2321.98 25.3%
states/UTs
(Source: India Tourism Statistics at a glance, 2020, Ministry of Tourism, Govt of India)

1.6.4 Tourism in Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh stands at first rank in volume and share of domestic tourists in
India with contribution of approximately 23% and contributes 11.31% of the inbound
tourism in India. There has been a growth rate of 19.42 % in the domestic tourism in
Uttar Pradesh, as compared to 26.07% growth rate of the nation as a whole. The
growth rate in foreign tourists in Uttar Pradesh is of 28.15%, in comparison of the
national growth rate in foreign tourists is of 40.43%.

Table 1.9 The Indian and Foreign tourist visits in Uttar Pradesh (2015-2019)

Year Indian Foreigner Total Percentage (%)

over previous year
2015 206515617 3104062 209619679 +11.98
2016 213544204 3156812 216701016 +3.37
2017 233977619 3556204 237533823 +9.61
2018 285079848 3780752 288860600 +21.60
2019 535855162 4745181 540600343 +87.14
2020 86122293 890932 87013225 -83.90
(Source: Uttar Pradesh Tourism, 2021).

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 The tourist figure of the year 2019 includes visits in Maha Kumbh Mela, 2019
and Magh Mela Bathe, January 2019. The decline in tourist visits for the year of 2020
owing to COVID-19 pandemic lockdown from 22.03.2020 onwards.

These above given global, national and the state government statistics includes
the data before the period of lockdown only because during COVID-19 pandemic
lockdown and in the post COVID-19 phases the global and domestic tourism come
down to zero. Still the international tourism industry has not recovered while the
domestic tourism industry started to recovery gradually but the spread of the omicron-
new variant of corona virus in January 2022 has damaged the tourism industry again.

1.7 PILGRIMAGE TOURISM: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Pilgrimage tourism being the oldest system of tourism counted as the epicenter
of the phenomena of tourism. The concept of pilgrimages and religious performance
tourism are integral part of human movements to ‘holy shrines’, ‘temples’, ‘churches’
and other sacred groves, sculptures and sites. The sacred visit to these holy places
across the globe has been major movements and migration of people in the historical
adventure to follow deep feelings, faith, belief, respect to these sacred sites and above
all full faith of devotees. The word pilgrim originated from Latin term “peregrinus’
which is translated as ‘traveler or stranger’. It also referred “the idea of wandering
over a distance” (Yeoman, 2019). In the present scenario the word ‘pilgrimage’ means
a religious journey, especially to a shrine or a sacred place (Webster’s Dictionary). It
encompasses all kinds of travel that is motivated by travelling to perform pilgrimage,
attending religious functions and festivals or discourses and travelling to participate in
religious fairs. Liguorian, 2012 quoted, if the spiritual motive is combined with
religious tourism it can be referred as a pilgrimage.

Pilgrims and tourists are two different actors situated at opposite ends of
Smith’s continuum of travel. The modern polarisation of the pilgrimage-tourism axis
is labeled as sacred vs. secular and between these two terminuses where sacred-
secular permutations and combinations are generally termed as ‘religious tourism’. It
reflects the multidimensional motives of the travelers whose activities and tastes may
vary from pilgrimage to tourism to vice-versa (Smith, 1992). In the present era, the
concept of pilgrimage has been changed tremendously and segmented into different
forms of modern secular travelling and traditional old pilgrimage which experienced
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rejuvenation all over the world (Digance, 2006). Pilgrimage tourism is assumed as
one of the oldest form of non economic journeys and devotees travel to sacred places
for different motives and desires like curiosity, to enjoy culture & festivals or to take a
glimpse of natural the landscape or sacred site (Olson & Timothy, 1999). Thus, it may
be concluded that pilgrimage, religious and spiritual travelling are self driven for the
motive where God is often sought for his blessings and faith.

1.7.1 Pilgrimage in India

The renowned book on pilgrimage, ‘Tirthank Visheshank’ defines the word

Pilgrimage (Tirth yatra) is to get sacred. Generally, the river pond temple, or entire
complex may be called pilgrimage where any divine power (of God and Goddess)
associated with the visiting places all the sins and worries of people were get cleaned.
(Poddar, H. et al.). More comprehensively a pilgrimage has been defined as a journey
resulting from religious causes, externally to a holy site, and internally for spiritual
purposes and internal understanding. In the Hindu religion, a pilgrimage is referred to
as a tirth yatra and is a liminal process that establishes participation in the spiritual
realm. Pilgrimage to a sacred spot provides a platform to pilgrims to assemble
together to indulge in religious meetings which are very important for the particular
religious and its followers.

During ritualized pilgrimages individuals travel to a sacred place and perform

rituals considered necessary to appease the sacred object in that place. These ritual
acts of worship acts by pilgrims (individual and collective) of worship and rituals are
regarded as part of their normal their religious duties (Shinde, 2007). Pilgrimages are
crucial in the Hindu religion in order for an individual to engage all of the senses
when to experiencing the sacred sites Vrindavan has to offer. The believer “sees” the
sacred sites (temples, churches, relics, icons, monuments), he/she “hears” the sacred
sounds (church and temple bells, drum beats, chanting, singing, the call to prayer),
“touches” the sacred artifacts (icons, deities, texts), “eats” special food (such as
consecrated food); and “smells” specific aromas (incense, fresh flowers). All of these
experiences vary depending on the individual’s participation in the religious culture
developed around the pilgrimage site itself (Shinde, 2007).

“The institutions of pilgrimage assume an important role in generating a

circulation mechanism in which all the social strata of Hinduism participate” (Jha,
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1971). In India more than one hundred million people visit around two thousand
major pilgrimage sites annually (Shinde, 2017).The pilgrims with different cultural
background (Religion, caste, class, faith) visited the pilgrimage sites in India as it is
the multi religious, multi lingual and multi-ethnic society. The Multi Religions society
in India (comprises of Hindu, Muslim, Christians, Sikhs, Parsi, Jain and Buddhists)
indicates diversified pilgrimage movement and varied destinations across the country.

Conventional pilgrimage

The archetypal pattern of pilgrimage indicates that pilgrimage is a personal

quest for salvation, both in space and in time. All rituals performed during the course
of pilgrimage are aimed at spiritual needs, getting rid of sins or earning merits which
are not transferable nor collectively shared,. As purusharth (the four fold arms of life
i.e. Dharma, Arth, Kaam & Moksh) pilgrimage may be undertaken on a particular
occasion for the fulfillment of any one of the four arms. But it must be borne in mind
that these aims are required to be pursued in progression to reach the ultimate goal,
moksh. Thus, the merit of pilgrimage is earned individually and moksha, the ultimate
aim of pilgrimage, is the salvation of the individual soul. In traditional vision, it is the
end of an endless journey- the cycle of birth and death- an exercise in perceiving the
macrocosm, knowing the absolute, a quest for falling together of all opposites, for a
homeward journey, return to the primordial. Hence, it is a phenomenon to be realized
within one’s own body and mind.

Modern pilgrimage

Modern pilgrimage is governed by material needs and risk cover from

personal, familial and social problems along with others factors like growth in India’s
economic growth, increasing life expectancy level, improved infrastructure,
improvements in health care & medical facilities and growing individual aspirations.
The innovations and improvements in modern mass transportation system have made
pilgrimage sites increasingly accessible. These factors have helped in improving
accessibility of pilgrimage to a larger number of people (IBEF, 2018). Besides,
Pilgrimage lies at the central core of Indian domestic tourism and the tradition of
pilgrimage is deeply rooted in the socio-cultural practices and has very few rivals
product in comparison of pilgrimage. Hence, it makes pilgrimage tourism diversified
and contributes a large volume of pilgrimage traffic in the contemporary world.
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1.7.2 Pilgrims Footfalls

The volume of pilgrims to different major pilgrimage sites in India is given

below in table 1.10:

Table 1.10: Pilgrims Footfalls in major Pilgrimage Centres of India

Pilgrimage Destination Tourists visited annually(in millions)

Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh 23 million

Jagannath Puri, Odisha 18.5 million

Vaishnodevi, Jammu &Kashmir 17.25 million

Haridwar, Uttarakhand 11 million

Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh 10 Million

Mathura & Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh 8.28 million

Ajmer, Rajasthan 8.2 million

Amritsar, Punjab 7.22 million

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh 6.8 million

Shirdi , Maharashtra 6.26 million

Source: Various National Dailies and websites, 2020

The above given table 1.10 shows pilgrimage still held the largest segment of
domestic tourism due to throughout the year pilgrimage events. The study area also
gets the huge volume of pilgrims i.e. 8.28 millions every year from different regions
of India and abroad (IBEF, 2020).

Apart from the above given pilgrimage movements, the following events are
also indicating towards strong tradition of pilgrimage which attracts large volume of
devotees/pilgrims like Kumbh Mela, Prayag 2013, Uttar Pradesh visited by 130
Million pilgrims (UP Tourism, 2015), Simhasth Mahakumbh, 2015, Ujjain, Madhya
Pradesh visited by 128 Million pilgrims (Madhya Pradesh Tourism, 2016),
Mahakumbh, 2019, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh visited by 180 Million devotees, the Pre-
Kumbh Baithak (Meetings of Saints before Mahakumbh), Vrindavan in March 2021

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attracted more than 20 lakh pilgrims. More than 9 million devotees visited
Mahakumbh, 2021 in Hardwar, Uttarakhand amidst COVID-19 pandemic risks.

1.8 RELIGION AND PILGRIMAGE IN MODERN TIMES

Religion is an integral sub-set of culture. In simple terms, its meaning is the

“way of life” in conformity with nature of the geographical and cultural landscape.
But the present trends of pilgrimage and modus operandi of the religious performers
seems that the modern religion is being flowing under the mannerism of organised
religion. The religion in modern times is more organised than the religion in the past
times in terms of facilities being made available to the tourists. Organised religion
refers to the interaction of the religion and pilgrimage managed as per prevailing
principles, rules and philosophy of concerned organisation and carried on the pattern
of business organizations and corporate houses. The religious performer (preachers,
pundits, Kathavachak & Bhagwatacharya) businessman, bureaucrats and politicians
manage to deliver religious services (Shinde, 2011) in the form of charity and take
care of welfare of the society with free medical facilities and subsidised or free
education to the poor people and conduct pilgrimage tour to the religious destination
with an objective of investment and profit in the form of donations (Iyer S. 2018). The
donations are given by the members, followers, pilgrims, devotees and visitors in the
temples and ashrams or charitable funds (Ramesh, G. 2020). Usually, this proceed is
used to maintain temple, ashram, dharamshalas, transport, hospitals, orphanage,
gaushala and in delivery of educational, medical and other spiritual facilities like
corporate house with the aim of collection further donations and charities (Iyer S.
2018).

1.8.1 Problems Associated with Pilgrimage Tourism

The economic benefit from both international and domestic tourism

contributes in the socio-cultural development of the hosts and beautification of their
surroundings. In spite of the strong economic incentive for preservation of culture,
heritage and conservation of natural resources of pilgrimage destination which has a
magnificent age-old religious complex and cultural landscape, the management and
regulation cannot be successful without challenges to shift towards low carbon
emission, resource efficient technology and socially inclusive planning and
development. The mass movements of pilgrims during particular days or occasions
18
adversely affects the “forests, rivers, wildlife, land use, cropping pattern, rituals,
customs and cultural performances as result of severe human disturbances,
infrastructural development and pollution”.

These mass movement with cultural performances like regular katha, kirtan,
parikarma, performances of daily rituals along the sides of water bodies and
organizing community feasts at a pilgrimage destination responsible for unseen
challenges, opportunities and threats. Various scholars, voluntary organisations and
environmental activists have identified certain negative impacts of growing and
unmanageable crowd of pilgrims on environment and culture of a pilgrimage
destination. They have raised their voice in the number of instances where pecuniary
benefits of pilgrimage causes large scale damage also to culture and destruction of
ecology of the area in the name of better accessibility, construction of ashrams, hotels,
solid waste accumulation.

But the uncontrolled movements of mass tourists create hurdles in adoption of

sustainable practices that could minimise the negative impacts of tourism while using
natural resources and socio-cultural values. The overstressed infrastructure, shortage
of parking, traffic congestion, lack of proper approach in visitor management are
challenges which are getting more critical due to virtual bookings of accommodation
units of countryside locations as well. The term 'over tourism' and various “definitions
of over tourism” arises from the "the impact of tourism on a destination, or parts
thereof, that excessively influences perceived quality of life of citizens and/or quality
of visitors experiences in a negative way" (Skift, 2016). Such kinds of impacts of
tourism at a pilgrimage destination are responsible for the undesirable trends of
pilgrimage.

1.8.2 Undesirable Trends of Pilgrimage

Despite the strong economic benefits and helps in the cultural conservation,
the state’s contribution for the rapid developments in tourism field for the short and
long term gains, environmental damage and cultural pollution are being considered
symptoms of unsustainable behavioural and destructive force for a pilgrimage
destination. Large gathering of pilgrims during a specific period of time shows the
ugly side of overcrowded roads and streets, traffic congestion vandalized behaviour
and violence. Sometimes, devotees disrupted public life and indulge in hooliganism
19
just because they feel that they have numbers on their side (Times of India, 2019).

Influx of more people at one sacred site at a particular day or in month poses a
danger of stampede, crime and riots, danger of spread of pandemic like SARS,
COVID-19 and other contagious disease and producing huge volume of litter, solid
waste, polythene, plastic bottles and other non biodegradable things creating
challenges for ecology of the area. Unnecessary pressure on local physical
infrastructure unhygienic conditions, lack of sanitation, shortage of basic needs,
appreciation in prices of land, rent and daily need goods are common features of a
pilgrimage destination in India.

The unsustainable feature of pilgrimage, current management practices of

organised religion and behavioural pattern of pilgrims and host societies are
forwarding towards irreversible and undesirable impacts on environment and culture
as a whole. All these threaten the existence of both pilgrimage destination itself and
the economic viability of the local residents and nations (Bennet, 2003). The adverse
impacts of development on the cost of ecology and culture has threatened and turned
the success into failure of economic development. The growing awareness about these
challenges to development has paved the way to adopt sustainable behaviour and eco-
friendly products

1.9 ECOLOGY

Ecology is science that deals with the interdependent, mutually inclusive and
interconnected relationship between the organism and their physical environment and
amongst the organisms themselves. The term “oecology” was first suggested by the
German Biologists, Ernest Haeckel in 1969 and he derived it from two Greek words
‘oikos’ means habitat or dwelling and ‘logos’ means (study of) the relationships
between organisms and their environment. The ecology enquires into the whole
relation of organism with their inorganic and organic surroundings coupled with all
the friendly and foe relations with those plants and animals to whom they come in
contact directly or indirectly (Singh, S. 2009). The chief goal of ecological study is to
conserve ecological resources by maintaining the ecological diversity and ecological
stability without disturbing its power of resilience and assimilation.

Further, the study of ecology propagates as the study of ecosystem and the
term ‘ecosystem’ was suggested by A.G. Tansley in 1935. The main constituents of

20
ecosystem are biome (the whole complex of plants and animals of a particular spatial
unit) and habitat (physical environment). It means all parts of such an ecosystem-
organic and inorganic, biome and habitat may be regarded as interacting factors which
in a mature ecosystem are in equilibrium and the whole system maintained through
interactions amongst species and between organism and their milieu. Forsberg F.R.
(1963) defined “ecosystem is a functioning, interacting ecosystem composed of one or
more living organism and their effective environment both physical and biological”
(Singh, S. 2009).

Characteristics of Ecosystem

• It is comprised of three basic components namely energy, biotic and abiotic

• It covers certain well defined area on the earth-space (spatial dimension).
• Ecosystem of any given space-time-unit which indicates towards the “sum of all
living organisms and physical environment”.
• It has temporal dimension owing to view in terms of time-unit.
• Ecosystem has scale dimension
• It delineates the “complex set of interactions between biotic and abiotic
components (with energy component) on one side and amongst the organisms on
the other side”.
• It is an open system by continuous input and output of matter and energy with
the solar energy as its prime steering power including other various sorts of
energy.
• It has its own productivity through the process of building organic matter based
on the availability and content of energy passing through the ecosystem.
• Several kinds of ecosystem are existing on the earth are viz. terrestrial
(mountain, desert, low land), aquatic (freshwater ecosystem, marine water
ecosystem, river water ecosystem) and cultivated or non-cultivated ecosystem
etc.

Hence, ecosystem is a basic functional unit in the study of ecology in which

the biotic components (plants, animals including man and micro-organism) and
abiotic components (physical environment including energy components) are
intimately related to each other through a series of large scale cyclic mechanisms

21
namely energy flow, water cycle, biogeochemical cycle, minerals cycle, sediment
cycle, nitrogen cycle, carbon cycle etc. These cycles helps in the steering of resilience
power to maintain stability in the form of sustainability.

Anthropogenic interventions in Ecology

Man is the most active agents of environmental change, modifies the

ecosystem through the exploitation of natural resources. He reduces the ecological
diversity and complexity of the ecosystem by removing a host of biotic communities
for different purposes. The disruption of ecosystem stability and its capacity of
resilience is being caused by man through - deforestation, and extensive forest fires,
induction of new types of vegetation in the ecosystem, introduction of new species of
plants and animals into the ecosystem beyond their native habitat, farming practices,
habitat changes, industrial revolution, urbanisation, buildings of road rail airports and
modernisation. The tourism activity including pilgrimage is also one of them which is
being carried out since time immemorial in the ecological environment.

1.9.1 Dimensions of Ecology

The concept of ecological sustainability and sustainable development emerged

from the element of risk in relation to the impact of human-induced activities on the
environment. The human induced, undesirable and irreversible changes in the
ecosystem potentially evolve the human-nature conflict due to uncontrolled
exploitation of resources and the unsustainable practices. It indicates towards the
contemporary conflict, between the unlimited wants of human beings and the limited
resources of the environment has made the sustainable development a desired goal for
everybody from a common man to all the nations of world at large. The economic
development at the cost of ecological degradation has compelled us to think and act
towards alternatives for development with self sustaining ecology.

These alternatives are crystallized in the form of concept of SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT in 1987 by the famous report Our Common Future, a publication of
United Nations sponsored World Commission on Environment and Development
(WCED), also known as “Brundtland Commission Report” named after its chairman,
Gro Harlem Brundtland. The report defines sustainable development in its simplest
form as “Development that meets the needs of the present generations without

22
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Within
two years of this report more than 150 modified definitions of Sustainable
Development were emerged with in different domains (Robert, 2007).

An intensive and comprehensive review of these definition revealed that each

one is overlapping and contradictory (Dimitrov, 2010) and the same has been adopted
by the different stakeholders according to their knowledge and expertise and to justify
their interests (Scott & Hall, 2015).The most laudable attempt was made by Lele in
1991 to define the Sustainable Development. Later it was acknowledged by the
international community in the Earth Summit, 1992 at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992
and it was again discussed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development at
Johannesburg in 2002 as “a form of societal change that, in addition to traditional
development objective or constraint of ecological sustainability”

Thus, the study of ecology may help in environmental planning from

ecological conservation point of view. The inclusion of environmental factors in
modern planning and development paved the way for assessment of sustainability and
sustainable development.

1.9.2 Dimensions of Sustainability

Afterwards, many conferences and summits were held at various places under
the umbrella of various world level organisations and compelled the countries to boost
the adoption of the approach of sustainable development in their national level policy
making. The following three dimensions of sustainability enumerated as:

Economic sustainability- the economic activities are profitable in both long

and short term including benefits to local economy.

Ecological sustainability – development that is compatible with the local
ecological processes, biological diversity and their biotic and abiotic resources.

Cultural sustainability- it indicates towards people’s control over their
behaviour and lifestyle which is in symbiotic relation with the cultural and
traditions of those affected and strengthened their community identity.

Further, the United Nations declared and celebrated the year of 2017 as the
International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development to attract the attention of
member nations to agenda for sustainable tourism in order to contribute towards
Seventeen (17) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). Several countries is being

23
focused on actions to improve the proper executions of eco-friendly policies and
products and taken actions to improve the monitoring of tourism impacts, encouraging
the uses of new green technologies and to promote environmentally sustainable and
socially inclusive tourism growth.

Recently, apart from the various conferences and platforms, the Indian
Premier proposed an ambitious five-point climate action plan at the 26th Conference
of the Parties (COP-26) meeting held in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom in
November, 2021 for sustainable development in the whole world. These five points
are viz. (i) increase renewable energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030 (ii) meet 50% of
energy needs from renewable energy by the year of 2030 (iii) reduce the total
projected emission of carbon by one billion tonnes from now onwards to 2030 (iv)
reduce the carbon dependency of the economy by 45% (from the earlier goal of 35%)
and (v) achieve the net-zero target of carbon emission by 2070 (Rees, 2021).

Remarkably, India has achieved the status of lowest per capita carbon
emissions amongst the world’s major economies with emission of 5% of the total
emission with a share of 17% of the total population of the world. India is the fourth-
largest carbon emitter after China and the United States (US) and European Union.
Besides, China has committed to achieve carbon-neutral by 2060 while the United
States of America and the European Union targeted to do it by the year of 2050.In
order to achieve these targets, the countries of the world needs to accelerate the
process of phase-out of coal, increase afforestation, encouragement of adoption of
electric vehicles and boosts investment in generation of renewable energy.

1.9.3 Carrying Capacity as a Tool of Sustainability

Carrying Capacity is core concept to maintain sustainability. It means that the

resources extraction must not above the rate of resource regeneration naturally and the
generation of wastes also must be within the assimilating capacity of the natural
environment. If it is not so, then environmental crisis will emerge. Assimilative
capacity means the ability of the environment to absorb degradation and rejuvenate
again. Apart from this, the careless, extensive and intensive extraction of renewable
and non-renewable natural resources compelled several vital resources to come to an

24
end. This notion has compelled men to think about the existence and conservation of
nature to explore new resources and avenues with a huge investment in research and
development and technology up-gradation and change in lifestyle.

Tourism Carrying Capacity

Tourism carrying capacity (TCC) is defined 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 prime indication is lying on estimation of number of visitors
and put ceiling on them to commensurate the economic gains by redesigning product
and quality of service.

Parameters of Tourism Carrying Capacity.

Physical carrying capacity estimates the visitor numbers that can

accommodate into a particular location or a site at a given point of time.
Geographically, in urban areas and at monuments and heritage sites is assumed
to be 1 person per meter.

Economic carrying capacity relates with extension of tourist induced
economic activity encompasses on local business opportunities and
inflationary stress on daily need goods, land, rent and local transport fairs
occurred due to tourism.

Social carrying capacity is the qualitative measures of the host community’s
tolerance level towards visitors. Doxey’s Irridex explains about the various
stages of Euphoria-Apathy-Annoyance-Antagonism cycle, as a commonly
used tool to determine social carrying capacity.

Biophysical carrying capacity is the ability of ecosystem to absorb the
alterations, interventions and rejuvenate itself to purify and becomes
reproductive again and again.

Environmental carrying capacity is the quantitative and qualitative
measurement of capacity of natural resources, ecosystems and toleration
towards potential modern infrastructural development.

The conceptual framework of Tourism Carrying Capacity was analysed by

Saleem, N. (1994) in his study on “the Destination Capacity Index: a measure to
determine the Tourism Carrying Capacity” discussed the carrying capacity concept in
25
the late 1960s in the field of recreation management and indicates towards the
“Physical Carrying Capacity”. John Eberlee (1998) in his study on “Managing
Tourism with a Sustainable Carrying Capacity” and indicated that the most
challenging task that for tourism managers is to assess the carrying capacity of an
attraction or destination”. But the question arises here is how many visitors are too
many.

In tourism industry it is being considered as “how many tourists can

accommodate per thousand residents of a destination” and compelled us to think
and adopt sustainable practices while on leisure tour or pilgrimage. It indicates
towards more than protecting the ecology – it means inclusion of the interest of host
societies their culture, customs, rituals, traditions and their local economy. It enhances
the lifestyle of local residents without damaging the socio-cultural system and local
economy. The effort towards awareness arise the needs of “Sustainable development
that improves the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity
of supporting ecosystem (WTO, 1995) and “tourism is a force for Sustainable
Development” (UNWTO, 2004).

Thereafter in various deliberations in the light of Kyoto Protocol, Montreal

protocol and the various sequels of United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change- Conference of Parties (UNFCCC-COP’s), the UN World Tourism
Organisation/International Transport Forum (UNWTO/ITF) research submitted to
UNFCCC COP 25 platform in December, 2019 that carbon emissions from tourism
are predicted to increase by 25% by 2030 from 2016 levels. Now the growing
consensus among all the tourism stakeholders that the future resilience of tourism
industry will depend on the ability of the sector to curtail emissions by 50% by 2030.
Recently at the platform of COP 26 in November, 2021, the decarbonisation of
transport sector and other associated activities of tourism industry to reduce the speed
of climate change and its after effects.

1.10 CULTURE

The World Commission on Culture and Development (1996), defines culture

is “the total and distinctive way of the life of people or society and their economy is a
part of people’s culture. The distinguished sub-sets of spiritual, intellectual, emotional
and material features of societies that encompasses in it literature, art, lifestyles,
26
values, belief systems and traditions.

Lowie, R. H. (1917) mentioned that British Social Scientist Edward Tylor

defined “Culture or Civilisation taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex
whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”

Malinowski (1931) defined as “Culture comprises of inherited artifacts,

goods, technical process, ideas, habits and values”

Kroeber A.(1952) defined “Culture is a way of thinking, feeling, believing, the

total way of life of a people, an abstraction from behaviour, learned behaviour, a
storehouse of pooled learning, the social legacy, a set of standardised orientations to
recurrent problems, and a mechanism for the normative regulation of behaviour”.

Hence, it can be derived from the above said definitions Culture consists of
several aspects of life namely economic, social, political subsystem, language,
bonding to ancestral land, traditional belief system and knowledge which includes
historic, biological, medicinal, technical, agricultural aspect coupled with “cultural
expressions” like music, dance, drama, paintings, architecture and sculptures, spiritual
and philosophic concepts of medicine and healing therapies, customary law, material
expressions etc. In modern civil society, all aspects of culture have paradigm shift in
their fine lines due to globalization, consumerism and predominance of materialism.

1.10.1 Dimensions of Cultural Sustainability

In the view of the prevalent global cultural-exchange and complexity in

functioning of the societies the forces of globalisation and highly volatile international
relations have bearing on the sustainability of culture. To maintain authenticity and to
preserve local culture and its elements various efforts have been taken at local,
national and global level and agenda 21 is one of them. The agenda 21 is a
comprehensive plan of action which has been adopted by the United Nations to act
global, national and local level. It is a product of the Earth Summit, 1992 which was
held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (French, H. F.et.al.1992). The relation between agenda
21 and culture describes that culture is the fourth dimension (pillar) of sustainable
development. It shows relationships of culture with five sections of the society
namely:

27

Culture and Governance,

Culture and Human Rights,

Culture and Sustainability,

Culture and Social inclusion and

Culture and Economy.

In view of the above five relationships, a culturally sensitive tourism

development mode requires the role of culture and its elements like rites, rituals and
values in sustainability. These must be recognized and integrated into planning and
policy systematically and in holistic manner. Three role of culture in sustainable
development are as follows:

Culture in sustainable development

Culture for sustainable development and

Culture as sustainable development.

Culture mediates between the three pillars and serves as the foundation for
sustainable development. The dynamism of cultural flow and its continuity brings
holistic and sustainable development (INTACH, 2021). These three roles of culture
strengthen the relationship between tourism and culture. Tourism and culture are
considered driving forces of ‘attractiveness’ and ‘competitiveness’ and they possess
mutually conducive relationship which can strengthen the attractiveness and
comparative edge of tourist destinations. Being a vital constituent of the tourism
related products and services; culture provides an important platform of cultural-
exchange and to earn income and generation of employment. Both tourism and culture
have symbiotic relationships and potential to grow as cultural tourism.

Cultural Tourism is associated with mobility of a person or groups of persons

for several motives such as educational tours, performance of art forms, fairs and
festivals, cultural events and other cultural activities, tour to various heritage sites, to
explore nature, pilgrimages, ‘folklore’ or art-forms (WTO, 1985). “Pilgrimage
tourism, Religious tourism and Spiritual Tourism are the finite subsets of cultural
tourism”. It plays vital role in the preservation of prevailing culture, offer employment
opportunity, optimises social costs and induces restoration of obsolete historical sites
(Goeldener & Richie, 2009).

28
1.10.2 Types of Society and Cultural Sustainability

Also, every society has to transit through agrarian and industrial phases of
economic development (Boora, S.S., 2007) and presently through the phase of
information revolution. In addition, every tourism destination fall into any of the three
types of society viz. industrial, agrarian and tribal ones. Every society possesses some
specific set of identities, values, traditions, norms and usages that transform the
attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of its community members. These ingredients of the
social status prepare the attitudes of the members that paved the way of host-guest
interaction. These interactions take place between well defined and identified cultural
groups to bring a set of alternatives that assess the criterion of interaction between the
host and guest in the society. The type of society and their interaction level and its
impacts has been shown in the table number 1.11 given below:

Table1.11: Types of Society and their interactions

Types of Society Nature of Society Characteristics of Level of Impact

society

Industrial Comparatively Low resistance to Industrial to

Society liberal, open and change, Industrial: low level
flexible conveniences rather of impact. Industrial
than to honoring the to agrarian: moderate
traditions and and slow impact
rituals. Industrial to tribal:
chances of high
Impact

Agrarian Society Moderately rigid Initially shows Domestic interaction:

and moderately resistance to change Less Impact.
flexible. and wants to be
traditional.

Tribal Society Comparatively Avoid all types of If interaction takes

rigid and closed interaction with rest place there is a high
of the world and risk of impacts. But
like to live in they prefers to avoid
isolation. any kind of
interactions, thus
attracts no impacts.

(Source: Boora S.S. 2007)

29
 It can also be derived from the table number 1.11, that there are three types of
societies namely industrial, agricultural and the tribal. The few examples of all three
societies are Industrial societies (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand & Modern
Europe), Agrarian (Indian sub-continent and South Asia, South East Asia Except
Singapore, Taiwan & Hong kong, Mathura-Vrindavan circuit) and Tribal society
(Ideally, not existed, but very few Jarawas, Onges and Sentinelese of India, Bushmen
of Africa, Maoris of New Zealand and Aboriginals of Australia).

Each society has its own culture and civilisation and their USP to have
altogether different levels of impact of interactions among themselves. Industrial
society is culturally more advanced and economically strong in comparison of
agrarian, which is developing, and tribal society that is closed society and prefers to
remain in isolation. Further, Industrial society contributes as lion share of the tourism
market while the agrarian and tribal societies passes through more impacts
respectively. The more are the interactions between the tourists and hosts the more is
the degree of impacts.

The flow of impacts is more visible from the developed to the developing and
to the isolated societies i.e. from the dominating society to the less developed and
weak society. One of the main question that arise here, when this interaction leads to
disturb the culture-tourism relationship in the context of sustainability? (Boora S.S.,
2007). As far as impacts are concerned in the case of cultural exchange in the study
area between Bengali and Gujarati versus Brajwasi the cultural impacts will be less in
comparison of interactions between foreigner- Braj residents and its most of flows
happens towards foreigners.

1.10.3 Core- Periphery Model

The core-periphery model describe about the cultural sustainability which

indicates towards conserving the core without compromising the ability of the culture
and her people to derive economic benefits from tourism. The core possesses the core
values and ideals of the culture, which remains more or less, same throughout the
period of its existence. The old traditions of the culture nurture at the core and these
ideals bestow a distinct identity to the culture. The periphery reflects the material face

30
of the culture and act as a duct while interacting with the external agencies and the
culture of guests.

Here the people get indulged in their routine activities and interact very often
with the visitors to express the means and systems of livelihood in the area. The
periphery of host establishes contact towards inner-side with the core of the culture
and to the outer side towards periphery of the culture of the guest. As far as tourism
impacts are concerned, any deviation from the core of the culture indicates relation
between tourism and culture becomes unsustainable and arise the issue “does tourism
leads to cultural growth? The movement of cultural growth or cultural crisis has been
shown in the figure 1.3.

Other
Culture
(Tourists)

Cultural Crisis

Cultural Growth

Core of
culture
(Ideals)

Figure 1.3 Core- Periphery Model

Adapted from Boora, S.S. 2007

31
 The cultural growth signifies a state where the movements of the real towards
the ideal and increasing rate of narrowing the gap between the real and ideal is
movement towards cultural growth. On the other hand wider the gap between the real
and ideals and the movement from periphery to the external culture indicate towards
cultural crisis the culture is experiencing. The sustainability in the culture-tourism
relationship lying in the restoration of the healthy interaction between core and the
periphery and any departure from the core and that too towards other culture (culture
of tourists) causes a negative impact on the host culture.

Generally, tourists are at dominating positions while the hosts are compelled to
put at a receiving end. The cultural exchange and positive and negative impacts of it
occurs owing to the interactions which brings qualitative, quantitative, and visible
changes in both societies like changes in behaviour, local language, cuisines, thoughts,
lifestyle of the hosts and growth in the crime rate. Some physical changes like traffic
congestion, overcrowded streets and roads, effects of inflation on local economy with
hike in prices of land, daily consumable goods, increase in cost of local transport, rate
and frequency for water supply and electricity are adversely influenced the life of
local people..

Further, the Types of Society Model and the Cultural Core-Periphery Model in
the context of ecological and cultural sustainability have been used to develop a
framework for the present research work. The adverse impacts of pilgrimage tourism
questioned its sustainability whether the pilgrimage will survive in future due to
unawareness and maladjustment by the developers, the local governments and the
pilgrims. Hence the proposed piece of research work attempts to throw light on the
issue of ecological and cultural sustainability of ‘pilgrimage tourism’ in Mathura-
Vrindavan Circuit by studying the viewpoints of tourists and locales.

1.11 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

Mathura-Vrindavan is one of the most visited, one among the seven holy cities
of India and globally recognized pilgrimage site and cultural region of India with
almost 6 million annual pilgrims (UPBTVP, 2019) due to important seat in

32
Vaishnavism cult of Hinduism and associated with Lord Krishna - the most revered
and most powerful incarnation of Lord Vishnu (Kalyan, 2008). Various recent
initiatives have also been taken by the union and the state governments to promote
and manage pilgrimage in the study area. Pilgrimage tourism is one of the largest
segment of the domestic tourism in India (IBEF, 2018)

The global penetration of Braj culture, attention towards rising number of

footfall of pilgrims and its impacts, awareness about resource conservation and
sustainable practices in the society, easily accessible study area for field observation
and data collection and effectively executable research in terms of time and cost have
generated substantial interest of researcher for further research in the study area. The
interest of researcher and the consent of supervisor also facilitates in selection of the
Mathura-Vrindavan circuit as a study area for the proposed research. Pilgrimage is not
only an area of study for sociologists, anthropologists and geographers because
multipronged approach is required to manage and regulate the heavy influx of
pilgrims so the field of economics, tourism and policy making, planners have also
taken it as an important area of their research.

Hence, the findings and suggestions of the proposed research work may be
helpful to take initiatives for comprehensive development of the Braj region by the
planners, policy makers, tourism professionals and authorities. The major decision
making authorities of the region are Mathura-Vrindavan Development Authority
(MVDA) and Uttar Pradesh Braj Teerth Vikas Parishad (UPBVTP), Mathura, The Taj
Trapezium Zone and the proposed Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development
Authority (YEIDA), Noida for infrastructural and general development, management
and regulation of tourist traffic and to consider in their future plans for further
development.

In addition, earlier research on the study area were conducted from different
perspective predominantly focused on sociological, anthropological and geographical
viewpoints but as far as the research and literature is concerned on ecological and
cultural perspectives on the study area, it is very limited and scanty. In order to fill the
gap in the research knowledge on the study area, this research work has been

33
undertaken for Ph.D. program by the researcher with the following objectives:

1. To understand nature and extent of ecological impacts of pilgrimage tourism.

2. To understand nature and extent of cultural impacts of pilgrimage tourism.

3. To explore the sustainable options for pilgrimage tourism in the circuit.

*******

34
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www.bhaskar.com

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