Impact of Sustainable Tourism on Tourist’s Satisfaction: Evidence from India

 From: Business Perspectives and Research

The tourism business is the most effective means to strengthen the economic and financial stability of a country. In a developing country like India, this business act as a backbone to improve the level of happiness of its residents. This sector is directly or indirectly supporting in reducing poverty at the tourist destinations of India. The tourism and the hospitality industry creates job opportunities not only in the local market but also at the global level. The vice versa relationship between the service provider and the tourist leads to bi-party satisfaction.

The tourists are visiting sustainable areas as they have the curiosity to know about the prevalent tradition and culture of the region and are keen to learn their customs. It attracts the local institutional bodies to develop the cultural clubs, guest houses, make best-connected roads, communication system which leads in development of the local market for the tourists, which directly affects livelihood of the local community. Tourism provides a chance for local residents to get involved and have more faith in their sociocultural event, and they exhibit their social values in tourists. Furthermore, tourism helps in developing the local biodiversity which maintains the ecological balance in the tourist destination, like some of the tourist spots are entirely dependent on their biological and geographical site, so it becomes compulsory to the local and institutional bodies to develop the ecosystem to enhance tourism in that specific region. Locals support the tourists visiting their region as they are the nearest point of contact available to the travelers during their whole tour of the destination, and locals help travelers in meeting their daily needs and offering local amenities.

In recent times many organizations are attracted toward the local traditions, culture, and they want their customer to experience the culture and make a profit out of it. When we talk about the profit from culture it is not limited to the profit for the organization only, it means the earning for every person who is related with the business directly and indirectly, as these organizations are paying a good amount of money to these local artists for their hard work. Thus, the tourism industry is now keen on spreading the local culture to the outer world just for increasing the value of the place. The participation of the stakeholders is good, but the limit should always there because as we know, the commercialization may increase the tourism, but it may also affects the ecosystem, biodiversity, and it also puts much strain on local atmosphere, which may leads to the lower quality of the service which is harmful for any tourist destination; once the place is highlighted for the poor service then it is not possible of the destination to again gain the same amount of tourist, so to avoid such instances certain guidelines should be offered for the do’s and don’ts well in advance. In the sustainability tourism, it is also essential to have local commercial connectivity to all areas around the spot, and the volume of commercialization should be predefined. The participation in sustainability is considered by the policies available by the national tourism body and regional tourism body by analyzing these two, responsibility and duties must be allocated, and the participation and accountability are allotted simultaneously. In tourism, the main point of attraction is regional commodities, food, fruits, clothing, and many regional things which attract the tourists toward the sites, and the developmental vision, economic vision, sociocultural vision, and environmental vision of regional bodies lead the path toward the sustainability. The studies on tourism sustainability are minimal and have focused upon identifying the impact of tourism sustainability on resident’s satisfaction and the local community. However, in India, no study has shown the impact of tourism sustainability on the satisfaction of tourists. This makes up the essential gap for this study as tourists are a significant factor in a travel industry, and their satisfaction is essential for the development of any tourist destination. Therefore, this study is focused on identifying the influence of sustainability dimensions on the satisfaction of the tourists.