India is heaven when it comes to tourism as here a traveler can tick all the boxes. From Desert to rainforest, snow mountains to seas, travellers can explore all the conditions here. Also traveling is one of the things which almost every human being enjoys. But this enjoyment comes at a cost that is too expensive, not in monetary terms but from an environmental, local community, and heritage perspective. Knowingly or without knowingly we harm our nature, heritage, and local communities which can be challenging in upcoming years. Now the solution for this is to promote sustainable tourism in India. In this article, we’ll discuss things related to this problem, solutions, and steps we as a company are taking for this.
What is Sustainable Tourism in India?
Sustainable tourism in India refers to the practices followed by people to make sure traveling will be beneficial to the environment, local community, and heritage. It includes all the steps taken by an individual, travel agency, or government for the long-term safety of tourism. It minimizes the negative side of traveling and exploration of nature. The Indian government in recent years has launched many schemes to promote this.
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3 Pillars of Sustainable Tourism in India
The 3 pillars of Sustainable tourism in India are
- Community-Based Tourism – Sustainable tourism practices promote economic and social benefits to the local communities. It ensures that the businesses and social life of local people will not be impacted by the commercialisation of travelling.
- Responsible Tourism – It is related to the travellers and encourages them to travel without impacting the environment. Travellers ask not to harm nature, and animals, maintain cleanliness, and minimise pollution. Also, it is the responsibility of the travellers to promote the local business and their talent.
- Heritage Conservation – Heritage conservation is the way to secure and save the tradition and heritage so it won’t end. Not to harm animals, No discrimination against the local community, and protecting the heritage sites are coming under this.
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Problems that Travelling Causing to Challenges
- Profit-Based Travel – As of now most of the travel industry is influenced by money-based profits and it does not care about the environment or the local community. To achieve this people take some actions that harm sustainable tourism in India.
- Lack of Awareness – Local communities in India do not have much exposure to things and this becomes a barrier. They without information follow the information and people sue the innocence of communities to cheat them. Like buying the land of people to open a resort or hotel.
- Social Inequality – There are not many opportunities for local people and they follow the wrong information. Companies but handicrafts made by women for some rupees and sell them for thousands of rupees in the sale. These companies have created this social inequality by spreading the wrong information so that they can buy things cheaply.
- Lack of Social Responsibility – Not everything is done by the authorities there are things called “Social Responsibility”. People have in themselves that they need to promote sustainable travel in India. For promoting environment-friendly tourism in India they can ask fellow travellers to maintain the cleanness in place.
- Pollutions – Another big reason is pollution that comes from eco-friendly travel in India. Here people mostly use the things which directly impact the environment.
- Over-tourism – A country with 1.5 billion people and millions of visitors coming every year makes the places in India overcrowded. This causes the problem where it becomes to difficult to make sustainable travel in India. Almost 90% of the places in India are crowded with visitors throughout the day.
10 Steps by Government to Promote Sustainable Tourism in India
| Scheme Name | Launch Year | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Swadesh Darshan | 2014 | Developed tourist circuits, boosting local economies and preserving culture. |
| National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) | 2014 | Improved infrastructure around pilgrimage sites, enhancing visitor experiences. |
| Adopt a Heritage Scheme | 2017 | Engaged private and public entities to maintain and develop heritage sites. |
| Incredible India 2.0 | 2017 | A revamped marketing campaign to attract international tourists and promote sustainable tourism. |
| Clean India Campaign | 2014 | Improved sanitation and cleanliness at tourist destinations. |
| Eco-Tourism Initiatives | Ongoing | Promoted ecotourism, conserving natural habitats and wildlife. |
| Green Hotels Certification | 2008 | Encouraged hotels to adopt eco-friendly practices and reduce energy consumption. |
| Swachh Bharat Mission | 2014 | Enhanced cleanliness and sanitation at tourist spots, making them more attractive. |
| Rural Tourism Schemes | Ongoing | Focused on rural development through tourism, providing livelihoods to local communities. |
| National Clean Air Program | 2019 | Aims to improve air quality at tourist |
Steps Taken by Flextates to for Sustainable Tourism
As a travel company, Flexates media and Tourism has some responsibility towards sustainable tourism. We here always promote the ways which contribute the society and make the world a better place to travel. Here are some of the steps taken by us towards the eco-friendly tourism in India.
- Flexates make sure the use of electric vehicles as much as possible for the travelling. Also, we encourage travellers to opt for the local E-rikshaw so it won’t affect the environment.
- On every trip, we guide our travellers to maintain cleanliness at all the places. Before the trip, we gave them a proper advisory of what to do and what not to do while travelling. We do not want to control them we just want them to help us with their efforts to make travel more eco-friendly and preserve our heritage.
- We are soon going to launch some special travel packages in which we offers special discount to the travellers who plant trees with us during the trip.
- Flextates is a strong believer in giving opportunities to local communities. We encourage our travellers to buy things from local vendors and make sure they pay correctly. Also, we employ the local people by hiring them as our guides and cab drivers.
