Understanding Host Communitys Perception on the Identified Construct of Environment, Tourism, and Leisure Transport: A Case Study of Nainital

Abstract

Tourism in Nainital is an age old phenomenon that has grown from a hand full British elites using Nainital for its sabulous climate which reminded them of their home. They used Nainital as a summer retreat and established summer capital to enjoy the weather and climate. Slowly the place started to establish its name as a tourist destination. People use to visit the destination for months hiring rooms with attached kitchens, the entire summer months they use to stay and enjoy the proximity of nature. During the British period, cement construction was not permitted on the Mall Road and vehicles were not allowed to ply beyond the bus station but nowadays, especially the summer season, the Mall road is clogged with cars, tourist buses, and trucks (Shah, 1999) and with time tourist visitation increased and leisure tourism was converted to mass tourist movement, that imposed pressure for infrastructural development in the area that itself was very fragile with limited space for expansion and development. Irrespective of these facts mass tourism was promoted and to reap benefits from tourism, large scale infrastructure was developed. With the increased number of tourist many folds imposed tremendous pressure on environment, resources and the supply therein, as these are being shared by host and guest altogether. With industrialisation and financial uplift of all sectors of the society in the country, led to vehicular ownership and good amount of disposable income for tourism purposes, in the last two decades vehicle ownership has increased manifolds. Use of personal vehicle for leisure related travel has become a status symbol especially in industrialised and developing countries. Most tourism emissions are a result of transport with aviation accounting for 40 percent of tourism contribution to CO2, followed by cars (32 percent) and accommodation (21 percent)(Gössling, 2012). In the entire process of tourist movement to Nainital, apart from the business community the host community has to face numerous challenges during peak season and also share the resources which is depleting day by day with increase in tourist traffic. The present paper is an effort to understand the perception of host community on increased tourist traffic that imposes issues relating to environment, tourism and leisure transport.

Keywords: Nainital, Environment, Impact, Host community, Perception, Leisure Transport, and Emissions

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