Chapter – II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

In this chap ter, an endeavor has been made to provide

an overview of various aspects a nd issues related to the
pre sent research work. In order to have an in-depth
unde rstanding of t he re search topic, several studies on
tourism ind ustry relating to plann ing, policy , de velopment
and mana gement of tourism hav e been perused. The studies
have been reviewe d with a v iew to understand the
objectives, research methodology, re search findings etc. and
to identify the hiat us between the existing literature and the
pre sent study. The studies rev iewed have been a rranged
year wise in five sections keeping in view the objectives of
the present research work.

2.1 STUDIES RELATED TO PLANNING AND POLICY

FRAMEWORK OF TOURISM INDUSTRY

Bhardwaj and Sharma (1995) , in their study entitled

“Impact of Economic Reforms on P unjab and Sub sequently
Need of Strategic Planning for Tourism Development”
highlighted that there are a few tourist a ttracti ons i n the
state and they are also scattered but still with inn ovative
ideas. Punjab can develop latest concept of tourism like
rural tourism, e co touri sm, farm h ouse tourism, agr icultu re
tourism etc. The study also questioned if Har yana could
successfully p romote highway tourism, w hy not Punj ab ?
They suggested that special incentives should be give n to
the entrepreneurs who want to start their venture in
tourism industry so th at in comi ng times, the demand of
more tourism products may be fulfille d. They also pointed

34
out that economic reforms shall help in making Pun ja b
more prospectuses and economi cally sound which will
automatically lead to increase in demand for tourism.

Sharma (1996), in the research work entitled

“Tourism-Policy, Plan ning an d Strategy” prese nted an
overview of tourism industry in India in general and
Rajasthan in particular. The researcher examined the
organizational structure of R ajasth an Tour ism De velopment
Corporati on (RTDC) and stud ied the opinions of touri st s
re garding the various services and facilities prov ide d by the
corporati on. The study revealed that pleasure was the most
important re ason for t ourists to un dertake journey and good
numbe r of tourists were satisfied with the services and
facilities provided by RTDC. The analysis of the stud y
furthe r revealed that trend of stay of touris ts was toward s
non-star hotels followed by guest houses and touris t
bungalows. The rese arch highli ghted the need for improved
communica tion skil ls, reducing room rents, increasing
efficiency of staff, strengthening t he association of private
sector and employing specialists f or the growth of indust ry.

Faulkner (19 99), in his study entitled “Tourism

Politics and P ublic Sector” endeavored to e xamine the
dynamics of tourism policy and p ublic sector m anagement
through ca se studies of UK, Australia, T hailan d and
Vietnam. The research found a number of reasons for
apparent neglect of policy research in touri sm area. It was
found tha t being a fragmented nature of industry, many
are as of government impinge on various face ts of tourism
activity in one way or the other and t his i mpedes the
development and imp lementa tion of coherent polic y in
tourism a rea. It was pointed out t hat touri sm mana gement

35
field is relatively a new area of study and it is to be
expected that some aspects of tourism m ight n ot have
advanced so far.

Singh (200 2), in the research article entitled “Tourism

in India: P olicy P itfall s” explained that touri sm is a h ighl y
political phe nome non. Public polici es on tourism reflect the
general state of governance in a country. This paper begin s
with a brie f overv iew of the prevailing conditions tha t
usually dicta te policy form ati on. Gi ve n this b ackground, the
state of the India n tourism p lanning processes and
implementation are prese nted. It is observed that tradit iona l
Indian tourism practices were la rgely orie nted towards a
domestic base rat her than internati onal tourism, in terms of
both demand and supply. The pa per made an attempt to
identify, whe re the tourism policies fall short of delivering
the desired results. Based on research re sults, some
suggestions were offered by the researcher with a view to
re ctify the past errors.

Stevenson (2005), in the case study, investigated Leeds

City Council ’s (LCC) involve ment in tourism and tou rism
planning over the past 28 years. It c onsidered tourism
planning i n terms of fit with other policies and functions,
approache s to pol icy/pl an m aking and the initia tives and
physical developments that have occurred. The study
illustrated that the tourism plan ning is infl uenced by a
range of tangible and inta ngible factors and is characte rised
by a complex web of relationships betwee n those factors.
The research highlighted the importance of contextua l
factors on t he definition, scope and place of tourism
planning in Leeds and identifies the need for further
re search into the nature and dime nsions of those factor s.

36
 Mifsud (2006), in t he disse rtation gav e a historica l
analysis of touri sm poli cy and plan ning in Ma lta. The study
aimed at giv ing a general pictur e of the positions and
decisions governments in Malta took a long t he years in
orde r to ma ximize the benefits an d minim ize the negative
impacts of tourism. The objectiv es were to unde rstand how
the tourism instit utiona l settings, i.e. structure and roles,
have change d along the years and how t his has i nfluenced
policy-ma king, to understand the different planning
processes tha t took place, to unde rstand the role played by
diffe rent stake holders in the planning process and the
attitude of planners towards coll a boration, to understand
how the issues of power and poli tics pervade d the whole
planning processe s and to analyze the changes in tourism
policy along the years. From the research it was concluded
that the issues of power and politics pervade the whole
planning pr ocess from the set -up of instituti onal settings,
to the consultation and col laborat ion process to the fina l
decision-making an d i s a recurring issue throughout the
time .

Boora (2006), in the con ceptual p aper examined the

development of tourism in India. The researcher made an
analysis of performan ce of tou rism in I ndia through
outcome of policies and initia tiv es in the form of touris t
arriv als. The period of study was t ake n from 1991 to 2004.
It studied the major markets for Indian Tourism and the
findings revealed that west constitutes major markets for
India. It w as observed that the dire ction of investment was
direction of tourists because Eur ope and America in the
20th century made high investments in tourism in some
re gions and it receive d high num ber of touri sts i n th ose
re gions. Fina lly the findings discovered that Tourism in

37
India can be described as a late start and that too a fte r th e
beginnings of economic l iberalizati on. The share of touris t
arrival in I ndia was ve ry nomina l in comparis on to other
countries. It was suggested that India needs to make lot
efforts in attaini ng t he high tourism goals and to tap full y
the e xisting tourism potential in th e country.

Kamra (2006), analyze d the tourism de velopment

policies in India sin ce independence. The author discussed
the various tourism policies along with their objectiv es and
outputs. The first ev er tourism policy in India was w ritten
in 198 2 followed by v arious other shor t term p lans and
programs. Further the researcher discussed the role of
gove rnment and private sector in tourism development.
Various other aspects of tourism like ‘infrastructure and
product development’, ‘human resource development’,
‘tourism prom otion and marketin g’ and ‘marke t research
and te chnology absorp tion’ were discussed to get a better
insight. Na tional Tourism policy 2002 was st udied and i t
revealed that the policy was form ulated in an e nv ironment
of closed economy with rigid licensing procedure. It wa s
observed that poli cy did not emphasize the role of private
sector and foreign i nve stme nt was not envisage d. The
setting up of a frame work was suggested to allow the
stakeholders to fully develop the potential of tourism and to
harness this to the nationa l deve lopment priorities.

Macloed and Tod nem (2007), examined the

development of a sustain able touri sm strate gy for Scotland.
It outli ned conceptual features associated with sustainable
tourism and consi dered t he evolving publ ic p olicy conte xt
for sustainable tourism in Scotla nd. Relevant aspe cts of
re cently published strate gy documents were reviewed.

38
Public policy implementation a nd cha nge management
the ory was use d to identify variables and situati ona l
contexts likely to influence the evolution of a Scot tish
sustainab le tourism strategy and pe rceptions of strategy
success. The article conclude d that future st rategy
development would be best served by securing
implementation performance instead of implementation
conforman ce and e xplain s wh y this should be the case.
Finally, re commenda tions were made for future strategy.

Panyik an d Costa (2007), ai med to briefly re view the

evolution of EU Tour ism Policy a nd thus to critically a nalyze
its position in the system of EU p olicies by various fa ctors
such as actors, competence s and de cision -making. With in
this context, distinc tive characteristics as potential
competitive advantages of supranati onal t ourism
development in the tourism m arket were recognized.

Kathrivel et al (2007) , e xamined h ow the policy works

systematically so that tourism can be tapped to its fullest
extent. By using questionna ires, various depths and
dimensions on diffe rent parameters had been sought.
Perception of the local pe ople , v iability of the vill age
tourism project we re examined whi ch were quiet imperative
for the development of tourism. It attempted to highlight the
pre sent infrastructure scenario of pre vailing human
re source practice s for the proper ut ilization of resources.

Dodds and Bu tler (2 010), i n their study f ocused on

identifying the barriers t o succe ssful imp lementation of
sustainab le tourism policy. The re search use d e xploratory
and descriptive approaches to i d entify barrie rs f rom the
lite rature as well as field research was u ndertake n t o
determine perceived barriers from key respondents in two

39
specific locations in the Mediterranean - Malta and Ca lv iá.
The re search found t ha t al though respondents were aware
of sustaina ble tourism, the ind ividual advantage from
exploiting sha red pooled or sha red resources was often
perceived as being greater than the potential long -term
share d losses tha t result from the deterioration of such
re sources. It means that there is little motiva tion f or
indiv idual actors (whether government, elected officials, or
indiv idual operators) to invest or engage in protection or
conservation for more susta inable tourism.

2.2 STUDIES RELATED TO TOURISM MANAGEMENT

AND ROLE PLAYED BY GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Kap oor (1976), conducted a stud y entitled “Tourism

Development and Its Economic Impacts with Specia l
Reference to Himacha l Pradesh”. He analyzed the role of
tourism ind ustry in the ov erall economic development of the
state and suggested to formulate a strategy for the
promotion of t ourism . He concl uded in his study tha t
tourism in Himach al Pradesh as a distinct product and
pre sents a vast potential f or th e state. He stated that
tourism is perhaps one of the indu stries whose development
ensured the simultaneously develope d with a number of
other related industries.

Krishnasw amy (1979 ), foun d that accommoda tion i s

an e ssential distinct faci lity that a country must provide to
brief up its tourist image . The resea rch highlighted that the
most imp ortant market a rea of th e worl d which generated
the bulk of Ind ian tourist t raffic registered a slow grow th
rate. He furthe r discussed that political disturba nces, rise
in the cost of fuel, i nfla tionary pressures and the recession
we re responsible for decline in the rate of growth of

40
tourism. It stressed the nee d for in centives to hotel industry
for growt h of t ourism indust ry.

Wilson (1981 ), highl ighte d the impre ssion in the mind

of the foreign tourist about Ind ia and examined the factors
that affect the tourist arrivals to India. The p aper also
studied the total tourist arrival to India from 1958 to 197 9
and tourist arrival i n I ndia from the v arious regions of the
world from 197 3 to 1978. The st udy revealed that India
hosted 7, 64,78 1 tour ists in 1979 re giste ring a growth of
2.2 percent over the figure of 1978. The researcher
suggested that strengthening the infras tructure at home
and improving our 'tourist ima ge' abroad coul d help in the
growth of touri sm in India.

Singh and He mraj (1987), con ducted a study on

tourism in K ullu valley and atte mpted to e xamine the
problems and prospects of tourism deve lopme nt in the Kullu
valley. It conclu de d that the valley annually count s ab ou t
60% of total tour ists of Himachal Pradesh. Abo ut 3 3% per
cent of the tourists were acade micia ns, especiall y
geologists, b otanists, geographers, zoologists,
anthropol ogists , economist s an d sociologi sts. About 40%
tourists of appreciative symbol ic activities ge nerally visit
the valley for sight-seeing, trekking, ph otogra phy, fishi ng,
skiing, mountaineering and oth er n atural e nv ironment
activities. High rates of the private transport and
inadequate public tra nsport facili ty creates inconvenience
in the local move ments. The valley lacks star category
hotels and adequate accommodation fa cility. It wa s
estimate d that about 60 percent of the tourists we re
suffering wit h the language proble m at t he re mote cente rs
because of illiteracy of the loca l people. The study suggested

41
that there should private tran sport participation and
HPTDC should provide better accommoda tion facilities
because the a rea has an immense tourist potential. I t
furthe r suggested that locals should be educate d to be
friendly with t he visitors.

Lal (1988) , cond ucted a stud y on “Trai ning a nd

Development Programs for Employees in Himachal Pra desh
Tourism Deve lopment Corporation Ltd”. The main ob jective
of the study was to discuss the training pol icie s of H imachal
Pradesh Tourism Deve lopme nt Corporation with respe ct to
employees’ entries and the e xisting pattern followe d in the
training p rogram . Most of the data was col lected from
secondary sources and personal interview were also
unde rtaken with the sta ff of corporation. It was concluded
from the stu dy th at training is one of the neglected areas of
the organization. There is har dly a ny programme aiming at
development of human resources f or the organization. Even
the corporati on was relucta nt to sponsor various courses
offered by other institution s and u niversities. Moreover the
promotion s of sta ff members were not followed by the
re quired training programme.

Tyagi (1989), conducted a study on “Deve lopment a nd

Potential of Tourism in H imachal Prade sh”. The main
objective of the stu dy was to critically examine the
performance of tourism and t o identify tourism p otential in
the state. To achieve the objectives the data was collected
from primary as well a s second ary sources. The stud y
concluded tha t Him achal has all the ingredients which
makes a particula r place of tourist importan ce. Besides all
the tourist attractions this state could not achieve the
place, it could have been, because a tourist image of a

42
destination is ve ry important in tourism development. The
role of the government in the tourism developme nt is
lacking. Some factors were noticed which were restricted the
growth of tourism in t he state like, lack of proper link,
information centers and public accommodation units for the
stay of t ourist s.

Tiwari (1 992), in his re search work entitled

“Organisa tion and Working of Rajasth an Tou rism
Development Corporati on” ma de a critical ana lysis of
organizational and function al asp ects of the corporati on.
The study i dentified that there is vast potential of tourism
in the state. But still the Rajasth an Tourism De velopment
Corporati on ha s not been able to anal yse the type of
potential for tourism. It suggest ed that the corporation
must establis h a research unit to anal yse the tourism
potential properly. The study further revealed that
information network of the corpor ation i s not very strong.
There is lack of information centers at importa nt tourist
places. The study also pointed out that the rates of RTDC
complexes are also not compe titive, which is another
deterrent to attract tourists.

Punia (1994), in h is stud y entitled “Tourism

Management- Problems and Prospects” made an insight into
the problems and prospects of t our ism ind ustry in Haryan a
state . The study highlighted that average annual growth
rate in tourist traffic incre ased from 10.81 per cent in 1980 -
81 to 13.72 per cent in 1990-91 . The study revealed that
tourists compl aine d that recreational and touri st facil ities
in the state are far from be ing sat isfactory despite the fact
that Ha ryana Corporation is a lead ing tourism organi zation
in the country. The publi city ca m paign is also ine ffective.

43
The study e mphasized that there is a need for an extensive
surv ey of tourism resources of the state to identify tourism
re source potential. It suggested some more facilities at
corporati on's complexes and furth er it recomme nded that
the re is an urgent nee d for redesigning of corpora tion’s
marketing str ategies so as to incre ase tourist traffic in the
state .

Batra an d Kau r (1993), made an a ttempt to study the

emerging dimensions of tourism development in Punjab.
They pointed out that to face the situation the corporation
has undertaken maxim um pos sible steps by creating more
infrastru ctures at floating re staur ants. The corp oration se t
up tou r tr avel wings for conduct ing tours in India and
abroad an d ope ned liquor vend which improve d its workings
and enhance d profitabil ity. It also upgraded the standard
and the ca pacity of flee ts and e xpe cte d the facilitie s of
transportation up to the internatio nal level.

Momani (19 95), in his p aper, discussed about the

world tourism development in the recent past. The study
pointed out that the availability of modern, safe and speedy
means of transportation, improved communica tion systems,
world wide availability of rental cars a nd bett er
accommoda tion were the reasons for the phe nome nal
expansion of the industry. The study rev ealed that the
tourism development activities have more ne gative effects as
compared to the positive effects on the environment. The
re searche r suggested that prope r control and regula r
monitoring of various sectors of th e industry could provide
the safe guard against the ill effe cts of touri sm.

Anju (199 8), in the research work entitled

“Management of Tourism– A Case Study of PTDC” a ssessed

44
the tourism potential in P unjab. She stated that though
geographically Pun jab cannot be considered as highl y
attractiv e state from tour ism point of view but existence of
many religiou s and historical pla ces and being gate way of
Jammu & Kash mir and Himacha l Pradesh, it gives scope for
tourism in the state. The study a ls o e xamined the marketing
practices of the corporation a nd f ound the product mi x i s
not very attractive and it also pointed at non-existence of
entertainme nt and re creational facilities at the complexes.
The researche r suggested rev iew of tourism poli cy,
personnel policy and improve ment in promotion al aspects of
the corporation s.

Batra (1998), in his rese arch pap er entitled “Tourism

promotion in Indi a” examine d the tourism marketing in
India and opined th at aggressive marketing efforts are
re quired to motivate tourist to In dia especially in view of
problems prev ailing in some part of the country. The study
emphasized on better role of overseas offices to create
awareness about India as an important tou rist destina tion.
It identified various reasons like the aggressive promotion
by countries within Asian region, accommod ation
incompetency’s, insuffi cient transp ort, safe ty issues, under
standardi zed facilit ies and p romoti onal stage are the major
shortcomi ngs of Indi an Tourism In dustry which call serious
re thinking and strate gic action pl a nning.

Welford et al (1999) , rev ie wed some of the literature

and gui dance provided for busine sses considering responses
to the e nvironmental aspects and impacts of their touris t
activities. It concentrated on the role of individual business
organizations withi n t he tourism industry and examines
both supply-side (production ) and demand-side

45
(consumption) p olicie s. In its review of a number of
guidelines the paper attempte d to make recommendations
for improving both t he provision of tourism serv ices through
supply chain manage me nt and destination m anageme nt and
the education of the consumer i n ways w hich make tourism
more consistent with the concept of sustainable
development. This e mphasized the need for businesses
involved in tourism provision not only to look at the suppl y
side and the demand side of their activities but also to
prov ide stronge r signals betwe en the two parts so t hat m ore
meaningful progress can be made towards sustaina ble
tourism. It p laced considerable emphasis on the role of
intermediaries in bridgi ng the ga p be tween demand and
supply.

Mehta an d Arora (20 00), in t heir research work

entitled “Tourism Industry in Pu njab – An a ppraisal of
Promotion al Activitie s” examined the r ole of PTDC,
De partme nt of Tou rism, Punj ab a nd De pa rtment of Touri sm,
Gov ernment of India. The y observe d that the brochures/
pamphle ts for prom otion of t ourism activities were not ve ry
attractiv e and informat ion giv en was not sufficient
especially for fore ign t ourists. It was also fou nd th at the
share of a dvertiseme nt expenditure to the total management
expenditure was small and it declined from 2.04% in 1979 -
80 to 0.30% in 1994-95. A comprehensive promotional
policy usi ng multimedia was sugge ste d to attra c t more
tourists an d sizeable incre ase in budget alloca tion for
tourism a ctivities was urgently re q uired.

Costa (20 01), e xamined the roots and the evolution of

tourism and town plan ning theory and practice. It discussed
how both fie lds hav e interacted with e ach other, and

46
prov ides some clues about the wa y in which tourism a nd
town planning theory and practi ce are likely to evolve in the
future. It was argued tha t tour ism planni ng theory is still
looking for its own identity a nd wa ys of ev olving in the
future .

Singh (200 1), conducte d a study entitled “Financia l

Organizat ions an d Workin g of Sta te Tourism De velopment
Corporati ons: A Stu dy of Punj ab, Haryana and Himachal
Pradesh”. The objective of study was to examine whether
re quisite project planning and economic viability precede
the establishment of various tourist comp lexes and to
appraise existing fina ncial stru ctu re of these corpora tions.
The study was mainly based on secondary data. To ana lyze
the data, various accountin g ratios a nd sta tistical
techniques were used. To analyze the variation in ratios
amongst the various f inanci al p arameters, the statistical
technique ANOVA was applie d. T he researcher suggested
that ma nagement of these corpor ations should be in the
hands of professional ly qua lified persons and the product
mix of the tour ists complexes must be ma rketed properly.

Akama (200 2), in hi s research a case study of Kenya

was taken to ana lyze the role of gove rnment in the
development of tou rism in third world countrie s. Accordin g
to the study, the gove rnment involvement in the
development of tourism reflects on the uniqueness and
peculiarity of the t ourism ind ustry. T he governme nt of
Kenya has, over the years, played a crucial role in the
development of t he country's tourism indu stry. Particularly,
during the exploratory stage of tourism de velopment in
Kenya, it was government inv olvemen t that helped to lay the
re quired groundwork and, as a consequence, the

47
development of country's tourism i ndustry jum p -star ted. He
furthe r stated t hat Kenya's t ourism indu stry is confronted
with se rious problems i ncludin g decline in internationa l
visitor arriv al and decline in de crease in tourism revenues.
Ironicall y, t he same government that played a crucial role,
especially in the initial de velopment of the country's
tourism indust ry, is currently being blame d as being
re sponsible for the ind ustry's curre nt poor performa nce.
Thus, th is st udy examine d variou s factors responsib le for
downturn in Kenya's tou rism i ndustry and how the
gove rnment played a vital role in the development of
tourism industry in t he country.

Handerson (2002), made a n attempt to compare the

principle Asian city destination s of Hong Kong a nd
Singapore with spe cific refe rence to heritage attractions a nd
the ir contributions to touri sm development, reve aling
contrasts and similarities th at of f er a n insigh t in to more
general practices and processes. T he study fou nd t hat the
authorities were actively pursuing tourism marketing a nd
development initiatives, incorporating the promotion of
selected forms of he ritage in order to stimulate visitor
arrivals, but also employing h eritage to de fine and
articulate na tional and cultural i dentity. Heritage is thus
shown a political and socio -cultura l significan ce in addition
to its economic value as a generator of rev enue, foreign
exchange and employment. These functions help to explain
the higher visitors al located to it i n strategic planni ng a nd
its increasing use to attract v isitors throughout Asia .
Visitors may visit the places wit h differe nce contexts, as
demonstrated by the circumstan ces of Hong Kong and
Singapore but their approa ches, pe rceptions and
expectations always correspond wit h each other.

48
 George ( 2003), e xamined the probl ems connected with
the tourism ind ustry of Kerala and ascertained the
possibili ties of a pplica tion of modern management
techniques and methods in formu lation of polic ie s, pla n s
and programmes for the development of tourism in Kerala.
The study wa s mai nly b ased on p rimary d ata. Four sets of
questionnaires were prepared to collect the data and the
re sponde nts were selected randoml y. The re search made an
attempt to bring in light the problems, weaknesses,
shortcomi ngs and re alities associ at ed with the management
of tourism industry in Kerala. It was found that the
destination woefully lacks international attention because of
a numbe r of deficiencies. It was suggested that the stat e
gove rnment should fin d the solutions t o various interna l
causes hindering the growth of tou rism in Kerala. Fu rthe r i t
was suggested that t he state must initia te new publicity
campaign to promote tourism effe ctive ly and efficiently.

Anastasia dou and Sau smarez (2006), examined

whether the involve ment of regional tradin g bl ocs in t ourism
is de sirable and if so, wh at form f uture participat ion might
take. Based on the findings from two qual itative studies,
examples of best prac tice were identified and
re commendations we re made on the basis of research. It
was suggeste d that the re should be gre ater co -operation
over facilitating tou rist movement and crisis management
was suggested. It conclude d that the relevance of regional
trading blocs in tourism needs furthe r endorsement by the
member states.

Prasad and Chomp lay ( 2008), state d that t ourism

development in India has passed through ma ny phase s. At
gove rnment level the deve lopment of tourist faci lities wa s

49
taken up i n a pla nned manner i n 1956 coinciding with the
second five year plan. The approach was evolv ed from
isolated planning of sin gle unit facilities in the second and
third five year plans. It was state d that the year 2005 was a
highly successful year so far as tourism in India is
concerned. In year 2005, China earne d 29,296 million US$
which atta ined 13.2% growth rate. It was observe d that
India's sh are in world touri sm wa s very less as China got
4 t h p osition in thi s re gard. Indi a got lower share ev en when
compared to Turkey. It was con cl uded that in the area of
domestic touri sm development, China is far a he ad tha n
India.

Chaitip et al (2 008), in the research paper, Structu ra l

Eq uation M odel was applied to test the casua l relationship
between tourist travel motivation a nd destination . A s urvey
was conducted to col lect data from 100 tourists who ha d
travelled to Greece’s destination, by adm inistering a
questionnaire and the responses were recorded on five poin t
Likert scale . With the he lp of fa ctor analy sis, four factors
we re identifie d for scales use d in the study i.e. travel cost
satisfact ion, tourist p roduct, tourism produ ct attr ibutes
and touri sm product ma nagement. Results indica ted that
the travel cost satisf action of tourists has a positive
influence on tourism product, tourism pr oduct attributes
and touri sm product ma nagement. The findings revealed
that the tourist demographics have no influence on tourism
product manage ment. It wa s sugge sted that both the private
and gov ernment tourism sector should deve lop a better
management of tourist destinations so as to de velop a
strong attraction to tourism, bet ter amenitie s, a better
acce ssibility, an a ppropr iate image to make tourism

50
competitive and to keep tourism product pri ce s at a
re asonable level.

Zamani and Hende rson (2009), reviewed the effe cts of

state religion on tourism de velopment in Muslim countries
with parti cular reference to Iran and Saudi A rabia. A spects
of the relationship be tween Islam a nd tou rism we re
investigate d overall and the issue s of tourism policies,
management and mar keting, and commun ity involvement
within t he context of the two ca ses were discussed. The
distinctive circumsta nces prevailing in Ir an an d Saudi
Arabia were studied and m ore genera l insights we re
pre sented into the interactions between the management of
tourism a nd Isl am.

Ali and Parvin (2 010), in their research paper,

examined the strategic management of tou rism se ctor in
Bangladesh. The study was undertaken to observ e effective
and efficient utilization of str ategic management of tourism
sector to raise gross domestic prod uct through which
macroeconomic sustainab ility ove r the time period of the
country could be improved. Time period of the st udy was
taken from December 2009 to February 2010. To know
re asons for touris m among 5 00 respondents, an opini on poll
was done. Porter’s five force model for compe titiv e analysi s
was used for the analysis. T he findings revealed that
domestic tou rists choose tour to see pla ces which are
famous for sce nic beauty and se condly they choose tour on
medical grou nd. In case of foreign tourists, it wa s obse rved
that they choose tour to see archeological and hist orica l
places. The research suggested tha t all the places of scenic
beauty, archaeological, histor ical and cultur al attra ction
should be well developed so that foreign and domesti c

51
tourists ca n be attracted to visit the place . Further it was
re commended that government should ap point a high -
powe red board to regulate touri sm industry by taking
services of knowledgeable persons.

Genc an d Pirnar ( 2010), in their conceptual paper,

discussed about br and mana gement by destination
management organizat ions. They prov ided a five point
check-list covering a general fr amework for buildi ng a
successful touri sm progr am by D MOs. Further the authors
discussed about the branding strategies adopted by
diffe rent countries and the ICVB’s ( Istanbul Convention and
Visitors Bureau) contribution to tourism dev elopme nt in
Istanbul. The research de scribed that in order to
communica te their destination’s competitive advantage to
the targe t groups, destination m anage ment organization s
role has been changed from being tradition ally ce ntral ize d,
passive towards being more flexible and towards
coordinat ion where the bra nding strategies gain specia l
attention for attra cting and bringing re pe at customers to
the destinations.

Francesco (2011), the research paper aimed to discuss

the use of management tools for the UNESCO World
He ritage Site s. In particular, it focused on the specific tool
of the management plan. It ha d carried out a three
dimension research technique . It in volved analysis and
development of a strong t heoretical backgroun d, in orde r to
consider the e conomic and mana gerial dimension of the
management plans, even from the pe rspective of cultural
tourism. The rese arch highlighte d the necessity of a unique
model for every kind of UNESCO site to create awareness
among public and ne cessity to real ize a real sharin g among

52
all the stakeholders of the site with regard to vision,
mission an d strategies that should be implemented. It
furthe r sugge sted the introd uction of performa nce
measure ment systems, to get both sup port to the
management and accoun tabili ty to the community.

Patel (201 2), anal yze d theore tical and conceptual

frame work of HRD policies, pra ctices and strategie s of
Gujarat Tou rism. The public a nd private tourist units of
Gujarat were selected as sampling units. To collect the data,
a structured questionnaire was used for management,
employees and trade union leaders. Twenty public and
private tourist units of Gujar at were taken as sample units.
It was found b y the research t hat only 2 0 percent of
managers and 17 percent of employees fall in the category
of ‘v ery good human re source’ whereas 2 percent manage rs
and 9.5 pe rcent employee s fall in the category of ‘p oor
human resource ’. A majority of m anagers bel ong to ‘good
managers’ category a nd a m ajority of employees be long to
‘average’ category of employee s. It was suggested that both
the government and pr ivate entrepreneurs should come
forward with effective HRD policies and proposals.

Yadav and De vnath ( 2012), in their research paper

examined the contribut ion of the private playe rs in
promotion of heritage tourism a nd assessed innovative
approache s a dopted by trav el agents and tou r ope rators in
showcasin g the heritage of Indi a. For this study b oth
primary and se condary data w as used. Primary data was
collected by a mailed questionnaire from 50 inbound travel
agents and tour operators randomly selected from Delhi.
The findings br ing out that the t our operators a nd t ravel
agents surveyed are not yet motivated e nough to ad op t

53
practices th at would lead to reviva l and pr otection of our
heritage sites. The practice s mostl y adopted by these service
prov iders is educating and encouraging responsible visitor
behavior, e ncouraging p urchase directly from cra ftsma n
which is pra ise worthy e ffort but is not of much
contribution in the revival and protection of heritage
products. It was suggested that the priva te players can
adopt certain sustai nable practi ces for conserving ou r
valuable heritage .

2.3 STUDIE S RELAT ED TO DEVELOPMENT OF

TOURIST DESTINATION S

Hyma and Wall (1 979), i n their s tudy, discussed the

potential for de velopment of tourism in the state of Ta mil
Nadu, In dia . The study e xamined the natural a nd cu ltural
re sources of the state and de monstrated that the state has
a rich c ultural heritage and areas of at tractive s cene ry
which could form the basis for e xpanded re creation and
tourist industry. It was found tha t because of low priority
formerly ascribed to tourism, fra gmented responsibilities
and lack of support ing in frastruct ure, the full potential of
the se activitie s has ye t to be realized. They suggested two
basic str ategie s for de velopment of tourism, n amely
re source based and urban base d. The former involves
re cognition of a reas where number of pote ntial attra ctions
is found in close proximity and such cluste rs ca n form the
basis for dev elopment of multifunctional tour ist regions. In
contrast, urban base d strategy focuses on init ia l
development on district headqu arters whe re necessary
infrastru cture is al re ady available and capi tal require me nts
are like ly to be less. They recommended urban b ased
strategy for early stage of tourism d evelopment.

54
 Batra and Chawla (1995), in th eir research paper
entitled “New Vistas in Deve loping Tourism - A Case Study of
Punjab S tate in Ind ia” hi ghlighted the fact tha t impa ct of
tourism on nation al economy is becoming i ncreasingl y
important today because of growing size of tourism marke t
and global business changes ta ki ng place. Tourism as a n
industry has to be pla nned and de veloped on scientific
lines. It nee ds organiza tional an d manage rial skills. The
study highlighted that various stat e governments have been
giving top priority to dev elop tourism for economic growth
and to solve the socio-e conomic problems. The study further
revealed that increasing effort s sh ould be made to ma rke t
the tourism product by Punjab Tourism De velopment
Corporati on on sound lines.

Kumar (1995), in the study entitled “Himachal

Tourism in Retrospect and Prosp ects” highlighted that a
great potential in the state is still untappe d and provides
ample scope for gro wth. The researcher was of the opinion
that an integrate d approach encompassing pr oduc t
identification, infra structure needs and support services
can le ad the state to make it a paradise for tourists. It wa s
observed that there is vast potential for outdoo r recreation
in Himacha l and since majority tourist traf fic to Himacha l
consists of yo ung generation, so activities like hand gliding,
balloonin g, Ski diving, sk iing, river ra fting, mountaineering,
etc. should be organi zed.

Raina (2001) , conducte d a resear ch entitled “Tourism

Development in Jammu & Kash mir- A Case Study for
De centralized Planning”. The study was primarily concerned
with the str ucturin g of destination zones of attr action
clusters in the sta te of Jammu & Kashmir. The stud y

55
identified several unexploited attractions of tourist appeal
in the three provinces of Jam mu & Kashm ir. In this
re search discussion was ma de a bout de stina tion
development including destination planning, de velopment
and maintenance. Unde r development strategies, a summary
of v arious models/approaches a nd their relevance to
tourism development in the state was reviewed.
Recommendations for t ourism prom otion in state were made
to me et the expe ctations of a wi der segment of touri st s
market in addit ion to giving a boost to the sta te economy.
The study concentrated on decentralized development which
shall not only enhance the carrying capacity but also will
help in terms of economic benefits and social upliftme nt of
masse s. The study intended to transform J ammu and
Kashmir the destination for 21st century with in the
parameters of agenda i.e. highligh ted during Rio -S ummit.

Mathew (2002), examined the development of tourism

and its impact on the economic development of Kerala. The
main objective of the study wa s to identify the major
economic development variable s related to tourism and to
measure the level of variations among the owne rs and
employees of tourism b usiness. Both the primary and
secondary dat a were used in the study. The primary data
was collected through interview method from 725
re sponde nts with the help of a ‘structured interview
schedule’. A two stage random sa mpling method was used
for selecting the respondents f rom the universe. The
univ erse of the study covered all the owners and employees
of business connected with t ourism in Kerala. T he
re searche r use d percentage, means, stand ard deviations,
correlation, ana lysis of variation, corre lation coefficient e tc.
to ana lyze the data. All the values were calculated with the

56
help statistica l soft ware SPSS. The study reveale d that the re
was no significa nt variation a mong diffe rent touris t
destinations re gardin g independent v ariables like income,
employment, infrastru cture e tc. It was su ggested to the
gove rnment to take all the required steps to create a
congenial atmosphere for taki ng up self-employment
projects in tou rism destinations.

Ortege (2 002), discussed the heritage manageme nt of

the destinations at Madri d and i ts touri st at tractions to
analyze what are the main challenge s that managers hav e to
face and how they can ove rcome. The study carrie d out a
comparison between the heritage experience of both the
United Kingdom and Sp ain. T o col lect the data , interv ie ws
with heritage attraction ma nagers and heritage experts in
Madrid were accomplished. These interv ie ws helped the
re searche r to gain an insight into t he various elements that
shape the manage ment of visitor heritage attractions and
destinations. The results of the study indi cated the lack of
planning for heritage tourism either at the de stination level
or the at tracti ons leve l. This defici ency led to differe nces in
the management of other issues su ch as interpretation a nd
knowledge of visitor profiles. It was sugge ste d that man y
actions could be implemented in M adrid i n order to i mprove
its heritage man agement. The res earcher recognize d that
furthe r research about the manage me nt in Madrid is
re quired to decide which of the se actions would be most
appropria te ones for touris m d eve lopment of heritage
without d amaging the site s.

Barkey (2004), de scribed the rap id growth in rural

tourism facili tie s in Sp ain a nd attempted to account f or the
re gional variations that exist. The range of activities

57
involved in rural tourism was described and a significant
trend towards the development of rural areas was identified
and it clearly implied a ma jor c hange in the use of the
countrysi de. The study asse ssed t he wider impact of rural
tourism p olicie s as part of overall rural de velopment.

Henderson (2006), i n the re search paper, inv estigated

how Dub ai ov ercame the various barriers in d estination
development. It was observe d that barriers relate to poor
acce ssibility, a pe rceived lack of conventional attraction s
and limi ted promotion. Despi te these unfavorable
circumsta nces, Dubai authorities adopted internationa l
tourism a s a core eleme nt in a programme of economi c
diversification. They investe d heavily in expensive facilities,
as we ll as unde rtaken extensive marketing, and the out come
was strong growth in touri sm. T he study also highlighted
various factors that were critical to destinat ion
development, major impediments and approa che s to
overcoming these barriers.

Kumar (2008), conducted a s tud y entitle d “Growth

and Deve lopme nt of Tourism in Rajasthan: Associa te d,
prognosis and Strategic Con siderations”. The obje ctive of
the study wa s to ana lyze the tourism resources potential
and existing tourist pl ant facil itie s in study area and to
unde rtake prognosis on the futu re of tourist t raffic trends
and tou rist demand patterns. The research was base d on
both prima ry and secondary d ata. Prima ry data was
collected through a structure d questionnaire and the
questionnaire was planne d in four sections to obtain
re quired informati on f rom touri sts. It was suggested that
gove rnment should amend its policies and be come more
liberal towards the intereste d entrepreneurs at the same

58
time should think abou t further pr omotion of si ngle window
system to expedite the clearance of submitted projects.

Manente (2 008), d iscussed about the destination

management to de fine and monitor the manage ment of local
tourist destinations. The main objective of the study was to
manage the various comp onents of a loca l touris t
destination in a wa y to ensure its economic profit ability
while avoiding degradation of the factors that created its
competitive position. The paper also attempted to give a
better understanding of the role of tourism economi c
analysis for destination manage ment. The researcher
defined the set of indicators and all in all stand ardized
nine ty indicators according to benchmark area and
integrated the indicators’ into the model. The set of
indicator s were considered for each strategic stage and
supplie d the information regardi ng futu re development,
obstacles and opportun ities etc. Lastl y the role of the
monitoring by strate gic steps within the diagnosti c
evaluation, where the indicators we re traditional ly grouped
according to the subject groups in order to describe “he re
and now” of the destination , was s tressed. The
re commendation was to keep a track on the strate gic route
taken by a destination and then to ev aluate the actual
situation in the light of effective decisions adopted and
implemented.

Timur and Getz (2009) , examin ed the concept of

sustainab le tourism de velopment in urban de stinations.
Both qualitative and quanti tative da ta were employed and i t
was collected through inte rviews and q uestionnaires
unde rtaken in Victoria and Cal gary, Canada, and Sa n
Francisco, U SA. Re sponde nts re presenting the three

59
clusters of the tourism i ndustry i.e. locals, governme nt and
the host e nv ironment were examine d on their i nterpretation
of sustainabi lity goals and barriers to achiev ing sustainable
tourism in ur ban destina tions. Results re vealed importan t
similarit ie s and differences among key stake holders, and
particula rly a lack of appreciation for a triple bottom line
approach among the tourism industry respondents.
Implicati ons were discussed for buildin g a more
participa tive policy approach to su stainable urba n tou rism
development.

Chauhan and K hanna (2009), in the ir study

“Destination deve lopment and its socia l impacts - a case of
Katra Jammu” examined the social imp acts of tourism in
the study area Katra. Both posit ive as well as negative
social impa cts of tour ism development were considered.
Primary data was collected with the help of a se lf
administered questionnaire from 1 00 respondents. For data
analysis, the statistical tools - p ercentage, average, chi-
square and t-test were used in the study. Variou s
suggestions were made to adopt tourism de velopment
strategies like capacity building programs, educati ng the
locals, re ducing economic leak ages, va rious training
programs etc.

Gautam et al (2012) , in their research paper,

asse ssed the scope and potential of adventure tourism in
Himachal P radesh and the opini on of serv ice prov ide rs
re garding the scope of adve nture sports tourism in
Himachal. A pre -structured questionnaire was get filled
from service providers at various places i n an d a round
Manali to collect the primary dat a. The mean score was
calculated and chi-sq uare test was applie d to analyze the

60
data. The study on the whole, brings out the fact tha t
Himachal is a state blesse d with a very rich potential for
almost a ll types of touri sm, bu t th e potential has not been
exploite d to its op timum. Furt her it was st ated tha t
generating adventure relate d tourism businesse s are the
most potential opportunity of tourism development in
Himachal. It wa s foun d that t he harde st barriers to
adventure sports tourism deve lopme nt in Him achal a re the
tourist sa tisfact ion with the adventure tourism facil ities,
acce ssibility of adve nture sports specific places, t hen
followed with limited publ ic fa cilities like sanitation,
medical e tc. A major weakness of adventure sports tourism
development agre ed by the stakeholders was the non-
availability of ind ustry data b ase. It pointed to the
formation of local association an d emergent government
support to pre pare the proper da ta base. Degrada tion of
natural re sources regarded as the riskiest threat of
adventure tourism de velopment in Himachal.

Jeong et al (2012), in their pape r effects of a travel

we bsite on tourists’ destination ima ges were examined. The
re lationship betwee n information search using websites and
destination ima ge was studied. A st atic grou p comp arison of
design was conducted with two sets of students as
experimental and control group s. Princ ipal componen t
analysis with varimax rotati on was performed on the 3 8
cognitive image ite ms and yielded seven factors. Re sults
revealed that exposure to a travel website significantl y
affected the majority of cognitive and overall destination
images. The study suggeste d sol utions as to how travel
we bsites managers should deal with their websites’
disadvantages .

61
 Murugun (201 2), in the research paper, descr ibe d that
the several countries arou nd the world h ave coined and
implemented different mechanisms and stra tegie s to prevent
crime from crippli ng their touri sm industry. The main
objective of the paper was to en hance and establish the
extent to which the Pondicherry is safe for tourist s and
bringing at inst illing confide nce among tourists abou t
Pondicherry as a safe a nd secure de stination. Th is p aper
focused on destination im age and issues of crime , safety
and security faced by f oreign tou rists. T he research was
conducted in Pondicherry a nd the places for data collection
we re selected on the basis of su itability in Pondicherry.
Interviews were conducted with international touri sts
visiting the region from all ove r the world. The survey was
conducted in January 20 12. An an alysis was carried on the
pre travel profiles, a s well as on th e importance ratings, b y
gender and age grou p. T he re sult indicate d th at very little
diffe rence appeare d betwee n the sexes. It was suggested
that more tourism police pe rsonnel should be in
Pondicherry a nd legal procedures should be changed for
tourists for speedy redressal of cases.

2.4 STUDIE S RELATED TO PROFILE AND

PERCEPTIONS OF TOURISTS

Kaur (19 85), in the doctora l the sis entitled

“Himalaya n-Pilgrimage and the Ne w Tourism” e xam ined the
diffe rence between different segments of tourism mar ke ts.
The researcher ide ntified that e xpectations of the pilgrim
tourists were different from those of the leisure and holida y
tourists. P ilgrim age tourists expect cheap and comfortab le
accommoda tion whereas other tourists expe ct luxuriou s
accommoda tion i rrespe ctive of the cost. The stud y

62
highlighted the need for affordable accommoda tion units for
pilgrimage tourists.

Rana (1 991), attempte d to study the promotion of

tourism in hil l states, pa rticul arly i n Himach al Pra desh. The
study examined the development of tourism in H.P., flow of
foreign tourists to H.P. and profile of foreign tourist s
visiting Himachal Pra desh. The rese archer pointed out
some problems relating to t ouri sm such as, imp roper
marketing and advertising network, abse nce of well -
developed infrastruct ure, ine ffici ent transportation, a nd
poor civil aviation syste m in the state. He concluded that
the existing state of a ffai rs re latin g to tou rism in the state
cannot be considered up to mark. It was suggested that in
orde r to maximize the multiplier effect of tourism, a proper
coordinat ion among the various policies like industrial,
commercial, environment, sports and cultur al polic ie s is
necessary. Further it suggested many ste ps to promote
tourism i n the state, such as ope ning of Hindust an Ti be t
road, opening of special branch in the tourism department
for the study of exact tourist pot ential of the state. The
study emphasized on some of the measure s which can be
applied to cont rol negativ e environme ntal impacts in
tourism a reas.

Gup ta (1992), in the article, e ntitled “A Stud y of the

Fore ign Tourists i n Agra: A na lysis of Profile and Opini on of
the Foreign Tourists", made an at tempt to study problems
re lated to one of the most famous tourist destination in the
world, Agra. The objectiv es of the research were to study the
profile of foreign tourists visiting Agra and to analyze the
opinions of foreign touris ts about various t ourist services
prov ided to them in Agra. To a chieve these objectives,

63
descriptive research design was adopted and it focused on
accurate description of the variables in the proble ms mode l.
Sample survey Method was used for data collection a nd the
univ erse of study comprised of foreign tourists visitin g
Agra. A samp le size of 100 tourists was taken and to locate
the re sponde nts cluster sampli ng method was used. Hotels
comprising of 5 star s, 4 stars, 3 sta r and bu dget hotels we re
selected to approach the tourists. All foreign tou rist s
staying in the hotels were pe rsonally inte rviewed with the
help of structured question naire. The findings high lighted
the various problems faced by foreign tourist s durin g their
visit. The a uthor recommended some va luable suggestions
to tackle all these problems like proper cle anliness of the
city, proper drainage system, li tter collection and disposable
system, guide s should be trained in behavior aspects, easily
comprehensive literature for tourists shou ld be made
available, introduction of specially trained tourist police to
help the tourists e tc.

Bansal (1994 ), i n the research work entitle d “Level of

Expectation and Satisf action of Tourists w ith Pa rticul a r
Reference to Haryana Tourism Corporation (HTC)” studied
the gap between expected and available level of services at
HTC. He examine d the level of satisfa ction of tou rist s
re garding serv ices and facilities promoted by HTC a t it s
various complexes and rev iewed the tourist resource
potential in the state. The study revealed, major areas of
dissatisf action a re lack of variety in cuisines and drink s,
lack of promptness in se rvice, and lack of communica tion
and recreational facilities. However, the level of
dissatisf action of domestic respondents was higher tha t
the ir fore ign counterparts. The study further re vealed that
the domestic tourists feel that the price s a re towards a

64
higher side. It was suggested that there is a nee d for
comprehensive marketing strate gy to attra ct more tourist s
to these complexes. It laid emphasis on formulati on of d ua l
pricing system for accommod ation, food an d beverages and
also stresse d the need for professi onal tr aining of the staff
of HTC to improve the quality of ser vices.

Chih (200 1), in his research pap er discussed about

the serv ice quality in tourism through a six - week
gove rnment program for 800 foreign -born youn g Ch inese
named “The Overseas Chinese Youth Lang uage Training and
Study Tour” . The tour aimed at familiari zing the
participa nts with their Chinese language and culture. The
purpose of the study wa s to asse ss pe rceptions of service
quality am ong par ticipa nts in this program. T he quality was
measure d by the REQUAL mod el, and factor analysis
extracted thre e dimensions inclu di ng re liabili ty,
re sponsiveness and assurance with adequate internal
consistency. The findings revealed that assurance and
re liability were significant predi ctors of overall service
quality. It furt her suggested that an effective service
evaluation m odel is ne eded for tourism and a different
service sce nario will possibly yield a different service focus.

Juwaheer (200 4), the research paper investigated the

perceptions of internati onal tourists in hotels of Maurit iu s
by employing a modified S ERVQUAL approach and used a
principle component ana lysis wi th a varimax rotat ion
technique to e xtract the factors. T he study identifie d nine
factors out of 3 9 attri butes and determined the level of
satisfact ion amon g international t ourists and their overa ll
evaluation of se rvice quality prevailing in the hote ls. The
re sults from the regre ssion analysis suggested that the

65
overall level of service quality was primarily derived from
the reliability f actor. The results of the study concluded
that the hotel managers should focus their efforts to provide
quality service and facilit ies tha t internationa l tourist s
perceive as be ing important in d etermining their overall
service quality of the hotels.

Nowacki (20 05), in this art icle e ntitled “Evaluati ng a

Museum as a Tour ist P roduct using the S ERVQUAL
Method”, an atte mpt w as ma de to u se the S ERVQUAL
method for judg ing the touri st produ ct quality of the
Rogalin Pala ce, a branch of Nation al Museum situated near
Poznan. A 36 item questionnaire was used to assess
visitor's expectations , perce ptions and level of satisfacti on.
The survey was carried out a mong 102 v isitors. The
collected data was analyzed using correlation, fa ctor
analysis and graphic analysis. The results of the study
identified the strong and we ak poi n ts of the museum on the
basis of expectations and pe rceptions of tourists. Various
suggestions were made to the muse um to improv e their
quality of serv ice.

Tosun et al (2007 ), e xamined tourist's perceived

satisfact ion wi th local sh opping culture , staf f service
quality, product value and reliability, physical features of
shops, payme nt me thods, and other shopping and shop
attributes with spe cial reference to the region of
Cappadocia, Turkey. A surve y questionnaire was designed
and co nducted wi th tourist s visitin g the region on a guided
tour. I t wa s f ound that the respo ndents recorde d different
levels of satisfa ction with various attrib utes of shops and
shopping. Base d on the rese arch results, it wa s suggested
that p roviding a higher level of shopping e xpe rience for

66
tourists and i ncreasing t he contrib ution of shopping to the
re gional economy requires supporting indigenous local
people via various fiscal and educational instruments to
continue prod ucing and retailing a uthe ntic hand icraft s and
souvenir goods. It was believed that it is necessary not only
for the achieve ment of higher levels of tourist satisf action
and greater economic benefits for the local economy but
also to achieve the ultimate goal of su stained and
sustainab le tourism development.

Prabahara n et al (2008) , the obj ective of the paper

was to study the se rvice quality perceptions of domestic as
we ll as foreign tourists in the service quality of tourism and
to find out the mediating factor for serv ice quality in
tourism. The data was collected fr om 100 d omestic and 50
foreign tourists who visited various Kerala tourist places. A
proposed hypothe tical m odel was d eve lope d for the purpose
of appl ying structura l equati on modeling. Collected data
we re processed in SPSS-15 an d AMOS- 16. T he stud y
identified that the mediating fact or for se rvice quality of
domestic and foreign tourists were totally differe nt. The
tangibili ty di me nsion of S ERVQU AL influences domesti c
tourists and the responsiveness dimension of service quality
influences the fore ign tourists. It was concl uded th at the
Kerala Tourism staff have a low impact of commitment
towards the domestic as well as for eign tourists.

Asli et al (2009), investigated tourists' perception of

the safety and security of a desti nation in relation to the
level of satisfact ion with the ir trip, in T urkey. The stepwise
re gression analysis was employed to investigate the
re lationship be tween trip satisfact ion, safe ty and security
re lated variables, existence of product or serv ice failure,

67
and selected demographic v ariables. Results reveale d that
positive perception of T urkey's h ygiene and health, and
safety and security helped v isitors to have greate r trip
satisfact ion, especially when they stayed longe r and enjoyed
the ir trip without any product or service failure. Practica l
implicati ons and future research suggestions were made to
sustain t he satisfact ion of tourists.

Mann and Ahluwa lia (20 09), attempted to find out the
satisfact ion level of the tourists towards t he se rvices of
Haryana Sta te Highway Tourism. T he study was e xploratory
in nature. Data was collected through a survey at the
Haryana highwa y tourist resorts on nati onal highwa y. A
structured questionnaire was prep are d for the purpose and
it wa s found out tha t serv ice e ncounter, performance of the
service staff and le vel of expectations me t, affect the
tourist's satisfaction leve l. It was concluded that satisfied
customers are more likely to revisit the se resorts again and
the chances to recommend others are also very high if the
tourists are satisfie d.

Mishra and Pal (2009), attempt ed to analyze the

cultural a nd pilgrimage destination attributes in terms of
tourists' perception and their ove rall satisfa ction level. The
Expectancy-disconfirm ation theory provided a conceptua l
framework for this study. The area of study was the
Sultangan j re gion, a pl ace with historic al and re ligious
significa nce, situa ted cl ose to th e Ganges in Bhaga lpu r
district of Bihar. The analyti cal study revealed that out of
twenty identified attr ibutes, the tourists' were satisfied wi th
eight, neutral with respect to three and dissatisfied with
nine attributes. The mean value of re sponde nts' overa ll
perceived le vel of satisfaction tended moderately toward the

68
high end of the satis faction sca le. Based upon t he results of
this study , several recommendations were m ade to increase
tourists' satisfaction a longsi de helping tour ism markete rs
and planners to develop appropriat e strategies in conformity
with touri sts' perce ption towar ds various destination
attributes.

Sharma (2009 ), conducted a re search entitled “Socio-

Cultural Imp acts of Tourism: A S tudy of J aisalmer”. The
re search was conducte d with a twin obje ctive to assess the
development of tourism i n Jaisa l mer and to assess the
socio-cul tural imp acts of touri sm on Jai salmer. The stud y
mainly used the pri mary data an d it was colle cted through
structured questionna ire from residents, tourist and travel
trade professionals. For colle cting the data a multi -stage
sampling technique was applied. The main focu s was on the
analysis of respondents pe rceptions toward s the soci o-
cultural im pacts in the study area. Statistical tool s like
mean, standard deviation and mean ra nki ng wa s employed
to find out the inte nsity of responses given by respondents.

Troung a nd King (2009 ), exami ned the extent to

which Vietnam satisfies the various destination attr ibutes
sought by Chinese tourists. The research investigated a
numbe r of variables, including socio -demographics and
travel characteristics, and compa red the importance tha t
travelers attach t o v arious destina tion attribute s with their
associated sa tisfaction with Vietnam's variou s tourism
products. By inv estigating the relationship between
importance and satisf action from the perspective of Chinese
tourists, the paper made a contr ibution to the litera ture.
The findings provided Vietnamese se rvice providers with

69
insights int o the perception and satisfacti on levels of
Chinese tourists.

Singh (2 009), condu cted a research entitled “Touri st's

Satisfaction at Re d Fort in Delhi: A Stud y of Foreign
Individual Tourist (FIT)”. The objective of re search was to
study the satisfaction level of foreign independent tourists
visiting at Red Fort , New Delhi. Da ta was collected by usin g
structured question naires from FI T visiting i n area durin g
1.6.2009 to 30. 6.2009. Questi onnaire containing si x
demographic variables and twenty one satisfaction variables
giving the aspect of gene ral attrib u ted in relation to touri sm
was used. The response s were re corded on five -point Likert
scale ranging from strongly sati sfi ed 1, satisfied 2, ne utral
3, dissatisfied 4 and strongly dissa tisfied with scale point 5.
The data was analyzed using sim ple statistical te chniques
like mea n, standard deviation and t -test was applied to test
the significance of data. Va rious suggestions were made for
increasing service quality vis-à-vis satisfacti on level of
Tourist. Valua ble suggestions we re made to Ministry of
Tourism, Government of India to improv e their service
quality as per the foreign tourists’ satisfaction especially in
"Red Fort".

Harp al (2010), conducted a study entitled

“Expectation and S atisfa ction Level of Foreign Tourists
Visiting Pushka r”. The stud y highl ighted the attributes on
which foreigne rs were satisfied and resulte d in an
enhancement to ov erall satisfaction of tourist. The objective
of the study was t o investigate foreign tourists’ holi day
experiences of Pushkar as a hol ida y destination. The study
explained the relationship between satisfaction attributes
and demographic ch aracteristics of tourists. T he study was

70
based on both pr imary and secon dary data . Prima ry dat a
was collected through structu red questionnaire . The
questionnaire was consisted of t hree sections. The first
section of questionnaire inclu ded the respondents’ socio -
demographic pr ofile and the se cond section contained 2 9
questions related with tourists’ expectations and
perceptions levels in relation to travel experience at
Pushkar. The last section comprised seven que stions re la ted
with cost of e ach facil ity availed at the destination . A sma ll
sample size of sixty tourists was t aken in Pushkar re gion.
The respondents were randomly selected using a systemic
sampling method. Respondents we re requested to give a
score to each of seven attributes on the basis of cos t
expectations and cost satisfaction separately using five -
point Likert scale rangin g from hig hly economical with scale
point 5 to highly Costly with s cal e point 1. Re sponde nts’
opinion was also measured on five point Li kert scale
ranging from high ly satisfied to highly dissa tisf y. Mea n
diffe rence was calcula ted to com p are the e xpectation mean
and sa tisfa ction mean. Various suggestions were made
towards abr idging the gap be tween tourist e xpectations and
satisfact ion leve ls through improv e ment of various supp ly
components.

Markovic an d Rasp or (2010), th e purpose of their

study was t o examine customers' perceptions of service
quality in the Croat ian hotel industry. The aim was to
asse ss the perceived service quality of hotel attributes and
to determine the factor struct ure of service quality
perception. A modified SERVQUAL scale was use d to assess
service quality perceptions from th e perspective of domesti c
and inte rnational tourists. Data was col lected from the
tourists who stayed in fi fteen hotels in the Opatija R iviera

71
(Croatia) , using a self-admi nistered que stionnaire.
De scriptive statistical an alysis, exploratory fact or ana lysi s
and reliability analysis were conducte d. The study result s
indicated the high expectations of hotel guests regarding
service quality. The dimensions reliability, empathy, an d
tangibles were the key factors that be st e xplained
customers' expectations of hotel service quality.
Suggestions were made to use the findings as a guide for
hotel managers to improve the crucial quality attributes and
enhance service quality and busine ss performance.

Rousan et al (2 010), attempted to examine the impact

of tourism serv ice quality dimensions in the Jordanian f ive
star hotels. A self-administered que stionnaire was used to
measure the perceived service quality of hotel guests. The
study use d the SERVQUA L model to measure the various
dimensions. A conve nient sampling approach was employed
in which a tota l of 322 questionna i res were administered to
tourists who were staying at thr ee branches of Marriot t
hotel in Jordan. The analysis of the coll ected data was
carried out thr ough various statis tical technique s such a s
factor an alysis, validity a nalysis and multi ple regression
analysis. The SP SS was used to analyze the data .
De scriptive statistica l analysis was used to measure
customer's perception scores. Find ing of the study revealed
that dime nsions of service quality such as empathy,
re liability, responsiveness and tangibil ity si gnificantl y
pre dict customer’s loyalt y. The stu dy also implie d that f ive
star hotels in Jordan should also come forward a nd try their
best to present better tourism service quality to win back
the ir custome r's loya lty.

72
 Renganath an (2 011), the main a im of the research
paper was to ana lyze the hotel guests’ expectations and
perceptions about hotel service quality and the role of
demographic variables in evaluating the serv ice quality.
Statistical me thods like descript ive analysis, reliability
analysis, m ultiple regre ssion and exploratory factor an alysis
we re used to ev aluate the service quality. The findings of
the research revealed that with regard to ind ividual
SERVQUAL di mensions, gap value s were positive for
tangibles, reliability, assurance and gap v alues we re
negative for re sponsiveness and empathy. Fact or analysis
divided hotel guests’ perceptions in to four main factors and
data on expectations div ide d into thre e main factors.
Component and reliabilities of S ERVQUAL dimension scores
indicated high level of internal consistency for the scale.
The findings of the study revealed that guests stayed in the
hotels vie w responsiveness as the most importan t
satisfact ory a ttribute. It was suggested to the managers of
the hote ls to encourage and motivate their contact
personnel in orde r help their hotel guests and to provide
time ly service as e xpected by the gue sts.

Chaudhary a nd Aggarwal (201 2), evaluated the

satisfact ion of the tourist s with the existing attractions and
asse ssed the impact of clustering of attraction s on the stay
of the tourists in Amritsar. A sample size of 100 tourists
was ta ke n to determine the overall satisfa ction of tourist s
with the existing attractions and attitude towards clustering
of a ttractions in Amr itsar. The research me thodology
adopted incl uded factor a nalysi s, Pea rson's correlation and
simple descriptive statistics. The results indicated tha t
current tourists are satisfied with the existing main
attractions but they don't kn ow much abou t p otential

73
attractions in a nd arou nd Amr itsar. The results further
revealed that tourists are positiv e about stayi ng here for
longer time but the y req uire better services and more
attractions to v isit. It was conclu ded that i t will ce rtainly
increase the carrying capacity of Amritsar a nd that w ill
furthe r lead to longer sustainabi lity of the region. The
re searche r recommended that this research can be ap plied
to other regions also and fur ther research can be
unde rtaken with other indicators of destination
sustainab ility.

Hossain (20 12), in the pa pe r, discussed the impact of

service quality on customer’s satisfaction to identify the
service quality in tourism indu stry through gap analysis of
expectation and perception of customers. The study was e x -
post facto in nature followed the survey approach using a
structured questionnai re. The research was geographicall y
confined to Cox’s Bazaar and al l the tourists visiting th is
location formed the sampling fram e of the study. Data we re
captured on fiv e -point Likert scal e ranging from ‘st rongly
disagree’ with scale poi nt 1 to ‘st rongly agree’ with scale
point 5. Reliabil ity analysis was conducted employing the
Cronbach alpha to evaluate the internal consistency of the
scale items. Data collected from the respondents was
analyzed on the basis of both descriptive and inferential
statistics. Ga ps in hotel service quality were tested by
employing paire d sample t -test. The re sults exhibited that
the tourists were only ‘moderately satisfied’ with h otel
service quality. The study also revealed that service quality
is a strong antecedent of satisfact ion in the hotel indust ry.
It was suggested that t he mangers of hote ls should be
highly concerned about priori tizi ng service dimension to
attract c ustomers and hence satisfy them the leve l best.

74
 Nair (2012), a ttempted to assess customer’s
expectation and re ception level towards service quality a nd
to identify the ga p between customers' expe ctations and
perceptions of hotel service delivery in Coimbatore . For the
re search five four star hotels in Coi mbatore were selected. A
sample of 150 touri sts was t aken for the survey convenient
sampling method wa s use d. T he SERVQUAL instru me nt wa s
used to perform gap analysis. T he t -test was applied to
know the ga p between customer expe ctations and
perceptions. The gap analysis show ed that there is negative
gap in all SERVQ UAL dimensions. The results indicate d that
the custome r expectation is h igher than t he customer
re ception which means th at t he service de live ry in the
hotels is poor than the custome r expectation. Suggestions
we re made for hoteliers that they may invest mone y on
developing more innov ative and comfortable guestrooms and
training of sta ff to deal with different types of gue sts.

Prayag (201 2), attempted to asse ss the influence of

socio-demographic cha racteristics on de stination image and
loyalty there by offering a segmentation perspe ctive of
visitors to the island of Mauriti u s. A self adminis trative
surv ey of hotel guests was undertaken and resulted in a
sample of 7 05 re sponde nts. Cluster an alysis wa s
unde rtaken to identify homogeneous sub se ts of visitors
based on sa tisfaction le vel with ima ge attributes. A K -mean s
Euclidean clustering method wa s use d to identify uniq ue
segme nts of visitors. The results indicated that mostly
travelling characteristics caused diffe rence between three
clusters. Two regression models we re estimated to identif y
the image attributes that were the most importan t
pre dictors of behavioral loyalty using the proxies of rev isit
and recommendation intentions. T he findings reve aled the

75
existence of three segme nts that could be differentia ted
mainly on the basis of the ir travelling characte ristics.

2.5 STUDIE S RELATED TO OTHER ASPECTS OF

TOURISM INDUST RY

Gop al (1979), in this rese arch paper, made a

discussion ab out the average length of sta y of tourist s
visiting different places in India. It was found that in Indi a
a touri st staye d for the longest p eriod than in a ny ot her
country. The average tourist stay in India was 27 days as
compared to 4 days, 9 days, 10 d ays and 13 days in Iran,
Bangladesh, Pakistan an d Sri La nk a respectively. It further
studied the foreign exchange e arnings from tourism in
diffe rent years and highlighte d rank of thi s source of
earning amon g various other sources. The stud y a lso
highlighted about the concessions give n by Indian airlines
to various tour ists.

Donald et a l (1989), in the arti cle on “Travel and

Tourism Pr ofessional Education” a ttempted to de s cribe the
conceptual and pra ctical issues involve d in deve loping
travel and tour ism professional education progra ms in
higher education institutions. Rapidly cha nging world
condition s coup led with predicted labour shortage present a
complex, but exciting cha lle nge for profession al educati on.
It was recommende d that the effor ts shou ld be based upon
basic prin ciples and a valid conce ptual framework to
improve professional e ducation.

Negi (1990), made an atte mpt to highlight the impact

of tourism. He stated that tou ri st is economicall y ve ry
important as it provides a source of income, employment
and also bri ngs infr astructural im provements and it migh t

76
help in regional de velopment. In his study he discussed the
socio-economic and eco-env ironmental impacts of tourism in
developing countries and describe d tourism and travel
concepts in India n context. Further he stated that in India,
tourism h as emerged as a third l argest foreign earners. It
was concluded that inherent ca pability of employment
generation for unskilled, semi-skille d and skilled ma npower
is significant for the contribu tion i n the development of any
economy.

Sharma (19 90), m ade a criti cal appraisal of touris t

facilities in a nd around Shimla. T he research reviewed the
difficult ie s faced by the touri sts du ring their stay at Shimla .
The study revealed that despite all the diverse attractions of
Shimla as we ll as Hi machal P radesh, it could n ot get its due
share of tourist arrivals. It pointed out the lack of transport
facilities a nd disturb ance in n eighboring states we re
re sponsible for this. The study stre ssed the need for proper
transport facilities, construction of small helipads at
diffe rent places to attract maximum number of tourists in
the state.

Kumar (1992 ), examined the effect of devaluation of

rupee on the foreign exchange earnings from touri sm. The
author stated tha t India churns ou t a whopping 30 0 bi llion
dollars, e ntertaining nearly 403 million t ourists eve ry year
from internation al touri st markets but its share in world
tourism remain pit fully low. So he stre ssed on the
promotion of tourism to develop the e conomy of the country.
The study further e mphasized on the impacts of devaluation
on international and domestic tou ri sm. The stre ss was made
on the reorientation of tourism pol icy in a su bs tant ial way
and for an effectiv e and long term tourism policy at th is

77
juncture to take place at both levels, i.e., inte rnational and
domestic tourism . He concluded that tourism is an
important i ndustry for earning of foreign exchange .For
India in t he past, it was the single largest indu stry to boos t
its exchange earnings a nd prospects for it were also brigh t
in so far as the re still exist a vast potential yet to be
effectively tapped. Hence in present fiscal crisis the
importance of this ind ustry is fore go ne in bailing India ou t
of its balance of payments crisis. He sugge ste d that for
attractin g tourists from a broad the re is a need to revise all
the prices in terms of rupee as well to ma ke tourism more
safe and att ractive for the visitors. Simultaneously, e fforts
are needed to improve the purchasing capacit y for domesti c
tourists so that they feel encouraged to take tourist
activities.

Kumar (19 92), in the article entitl ed “Tourism Today: An

Indian Perspective”, viewed that tourism is an economi c
activity, which helps to earn foreign exchange. He studied
on tourism development and its associated aspects and
pointed out th at ap art the fore ign exchange earnings,
tourism plays a sign ifican t role as a medium of socia l
cultural development and promoter of employme nt. Tourism
also promotes peace ful relations among na tions a nd
promotes goodwill and friendshi p a mong them. The find ings
revealed that today I ndian gov ernment is trying to exploi t
its tourism resource s by providing serie s of incentives and
by inviting priv ate sector part icipa tion. T he organiz ation of
various fairs and festivals for attractin g tourists, ta x
exemption for investor's encoura gement etc. shows the
sincere efforts of Indian government for promotion of
tourism. Apart from effective and efficie nt m arketin g
strategies through electronic media supp orte d by prin t

78
media followed by m arketing thr ough tour ope rator and
travel agents, indicates the bright future for tourism
industry in Ind ia.

Krishna et al (19 92), in their article “Classif ication

and Promotion of Touri sm in Vi sakhapatnam District of
Andhra Pradesh State” made an atte mpt to study the
tourism depth in Visakhapa tnam. T he main objectives of the
study we re to describe the important tourist centers in the
district, to cla ssify them accordi ng to their geograp hica l
location an d signif icance, to stu dy the e xisting facilities
prov ided by the AP TTDC (Andh ra Pra desh Travel and
Tourism Deve lopme nt Corporati on) and to suggest a few
measure s for promotion of tourism in the district. Data wa s
collected from APTTDC and a fe w suggestions were made for
better promotion of touri st cen te rs and no hard a nd
concrete methodology was selected. They made certain
suggestions to encourage tourism in the Andhra Prade sh,
such as to prov ide cre dit facilitie s to carryout t ours in the
state through nationalized ban ks or organ izations. F urther
it was recommended that to prom ote tourism the APTTD C
has to active ly engage in the advertise me nts on the radios,
television, magazines and newspap ers and t o in troduce a nd
strengthen the tourism education at intermediate, graduate
and post gradua te levels for generating more awareness
among the people about tourism and its imp ortance .

Saha (1994 ), examined the deve lopment of

accommoda tion sector in Pond iche rry. The mai n objectiv e of
the study was to determine the rate of growth t ourist s’
inflow to Pon dicherry as a centre and to inve stigate whether
accommoda tion sector h as grown up over the years or not.
The study used both pri mary and secondary da ta. Primary

79
data was collecte d with the h elp of se lf-administ rative
questionnaires. T he five sets of questionna ires we re
administr ated. The first questionnaire was on ‘hote lier’s
perceptions’, second was on ‘promotion’, the third
questionnaire was on ‘job and roles’, the fourth wa s on
‘training ’ and the fifth questionnaire was on ‘factors
affecting the dev elopme nt of hotel indu stry’. Time se ries
analysis wa s done for the tourist p opulation a nd number of
beds. The time period of the study was from 1985 to 1992. A
short te rm growth rate was wor ke d out and for further
analysis regression analysi s was undertaken. The findings
revealed that the industry was affected by various changes
like technological, knowledge explosion, social, polit ical and
economic and these changes lea d to both favorable and
unfav orable e nv ironments. It was suggested that the
gove rnment policies that affect the hotel industry should be
communica ted timely so th at h otelie rs could take the
benefits and help the accommodation sector.

Negi (19 96), i n the research pape r e ntitled “Touri sm

and Deve lopme nt– Some Issues” obse rved that tourism
development encompasses practica lly all fields of economic
activity. The auth or examine d the economic, employment,
environmental and cultural aspects of tourism and obse rved
that a part from generating employment and augme nting
national income, tourism offers un limited oppor tunities for
bringing ma n and he ritage together. The author also
examined the role of different t ourism organization s in
diffe rent countries for development of tourism . The study
concluded tha t the growt h of these organizations signals an
increasing awareness of the importance of trav el and
tourism by world commu nity. It als o recognize s the fact that

80
gove rnment has a vital role to play in shapin g tourism
development programs.

Seth (1 996), in the research articl e entitled “Tourism

in India- An Overview” expresse d the view that apart from
being a massiv e foreign excha nge earner, tourism is
particula rly imp ortant to a vast and variegated country like
ours a s i t contribu tes to nation al integrati on, promotes
social and cultural am bie nce and plays a ke y role in socio -
economic development. The study highlighted that increased
domestic air serv ices, entry of private ente rprise s to develop
airports, la unch of Shatab di train s and Pala ce on W heels
train, creation of Tourism F inance Corporations of India are
we lcome steps to promote touris m. It further pointed out
that an othe r cruci al fa ctor for tourism developme nt is
political will and commitment on the part of leadership a t
central, state and di strict levels.

Dhotra and Rohm etra (199 7), in their rese arch work
entitled “Tourism in Jammu & Kashmir” observed that
tourism has been the backbone of economy in Jammu &
Kashmir, which h as been badly aff ected by terrorism. They
expressed that still there are areas like Ladakh and J ammu,
which have not been affected by te rrorism. They sugge ste d a
new strategy for prom otion of tourism in t hese areas.
Furthe r it was recomme nded that for Jammu region, thrust
might be given to attract availab le traffic of pilgr ims to
Vaishno Devi and to othe r tou rist places in J ammu re gion,
which ab ounds in such spots b ut hav e not got m uch
exposure. The study suggested the another strategy to
promote tourism to develop adventure tourism and to
introduce sport s like paragliding, skiing, mounta ineering,
etc. and they also suggested that to attract foreign as we ll

81
as domestic tourists in La dakh r egion, promotion of ai r
transport be given top priority as this region re mains t otall y
cut off d uring most p art of the year.

Batra (20 00), conducted a research entitled “Eco

Tourism i n Shiml a Re gion”. The objective of the research
was to identify the issued and intricacies involved in eco
tourism in Shimla hills and to i dentify the various factors
re sponsible for de clinin g tourist t raffic in Sh imla re gion.
The study was based on both prim ary and secondary da ta .
The primary data was colle cte d by personal interview
method through four compre hensive schedules for
gove rnment. Suggestions were made to achieve sustainable
tourism in Shimla like government should che ck h aph aza rd
and un planne d gr owth of Shimla town and should check
illegal encroachments of dense ly forest areas.

Panigrahi (2005), described that eco tourism both a t

conceptual a nd empirical levels is significan t in a number of
re spects. Over the decades numerous cha nges have been
observed both in the content and context of eco tourism.
With globaliza tion the processes of these changes not o nl y
widened and multiplied, but also gained impo rtance. The
re search paper studied the treasure of the Orissa region in
easte rn India and empha sized on the potential of eco
tourism in the scheduled areas which a re largely domina ted
by the tribal commu nities. It w a s concluded by way of
re commendations that if e co touri sm is properly developed
it can n ot only att ract t ourist from far and near, but ca n
also generate more revenue for the inhabitan ts of the region
and for the state .

Bischoff ( 2007), in his re search ta lked about the role

of university students in attracting frie nds and relatives as

82
visitors to the ir pla ce of study. A q uestionnaire survey
conducted at a university in UK was presented in the
context of gene ral UK tourism a nd the v isits to friends and
re latives (VFR) sector in particul ar. It was de monstra ted
that unive rsitie s represent large, frequently underestimated,
generators of VFR tourism and th at significant differences
exist between the friends and the relatives' components. T he
re search drawn concrete conclusions about the marketing
opportunities and argue s that t he students themselves
re present the most e ffective target for prom otion efforts. I t
also pointed out the possibilities for turning d ay visits into
overnight stays, pa rt icular ly in the relatives' segment.

Metin et al (2007), the primary ob jective of this paper

was twofold, one was to inv estigate the impact of perceived
risk on the tendency to trav el internationally and the
second was to explore if there is any dif ference in the
perception of risky places among t hree clusters segmented
based on the Hofstede's uncertainty avoidance index. The
sample popul ation of the st udy consists of 1180
international trav elers visiting Hong Kong. The research
findings revealed that the majority of trav elers are more
likely to ch ange their travel plans to a destina tion that ha s
elevated risk whi le the minority reports they a re more
unlikely. These findings su ggested that i nternational
travelers appear to be sensitive towards the occurrence of
any type of risk in t heir evoke d de stinations. D iffe rences
we re also observed from one conti nent to another in terms
of the influence of perceived risks. Finally it wa s concluded
that travelers from different national cu lture s have varying
degrees of the perceived risk. Implications both for the ory
and pract itioners are also discusse d.

83
 Hughes and A llen (2008), exam ined the image of
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as a holi day destination.
The countries are lin ked by having had commu nis t
gove rnments and be ing inaccessibl e to tourists from outside
the communist bloc. This study e xamined the views of a
numbe r of UK residents about destination image of CEE.
The study inve stigated through semi -structure d intervie ws
the images held by people who have and who have not
visited CEE. The data was ana lyzed qualita tivel y. Few
significa nt di ffere nces were found between views of visitors
and non-visitors and most views were positive. Negative
images were usually associated with the eastern part of the
are a e specially ex-Yugoslavia.

Chowdhary (2009) , in the research pa pe r e ntitled

“Critique on Capa city Buildi ng for tourism Sector in Ind ia”,
criticall y evaluate d the existing capacity build in g
interventions for tou rism sector i n India. The researcher
state d that it i s parad oxical that while on the one hand
the re is a hyped skill gap and on t he other hand there is a
huge incidence of unemployment. It was observed that the
industry is not willing to pay a d equate salaries and the
existing interventions hav e focused more on huma n
re source deve lopment at middle and higher le vels rat her
than at grassroots leve l. The author opine d that
interventions have not been able to ensure requisite skills
inventory. The research concluded that the tourism indust ry
has the potential to generate substantive number of local
jobs. T he research provided a m odel for entrepreneurial
intervention consisti ng of various eleme nts re garding the
creations of tourism entrepreneurs. It was suggested to
adopt a different approach to ca pacity b uilding and the
gove rnment must focu s on e ntrepreneurship skills t ha t

84
would help i n enlargement of tourism ind ustry. Further it
was recommended that other stakeholders have to be
included into a comprehensive intervention plan and
tourism entrepreneurship must be included a s a capacity
building activ ity.

Sindhu a nd Subra moniam (20 0 9), in their study

aimed to give an insigh t in to t he wa ys an d means to
encourage e cotourism in most e nergy re sponsible manner. It
gave e mphasize on the need for energy efficiency and its
impacts on env ironment. The researcher highlighted the
three main impacts of tourism i.e. pressure on natura l
re sources, pollution and w aste generation, and permanent
damage to the ecosystem. Further they discussed the energy
consumpti on in Ke rala and i nitiative s of Kerala to reduce
energy consumption and the improved energy policies of the
state for more dependence on renewable sources of energy.
The stressed on spreading the aware ness among people to
use electrical power conservative ly. The research suggested
various measures to create sustainable greener ecotourism
like water conservation, use of pa d dle boats for recreational
activities, eco-friendly tha tched roofs u sing low cost and
less energy consuming biodegradab le materials like bamboo
and cocon ut leaves.

Tomer (201 1), in her study, exami ned the behavior of

pilgrims in the states of north In d ia. The main objective of
her study was to obtain the opini on of p ilgrims regardin g
various facilities provided to them during the ir v isit to
pilgrimage sites. The study covered the five states namely
Punjab, Haryana, Hima chal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and
Uttarakha nd. One pilgrimage site was selected from each of
the se states. A sample of 500 pilgrimages was taken, 100

85
pilgrimages each from the selected five states. The chi -
square test was applied to study the difference with regard
to various qua litative aspects highlighted by the
re sponde nts in the questionnaires. The results indic ated
that foreign tourist ha d been affected by seasonal syndrome
and behavioral changes had also bee n noticed regarding
various factors. It wa s recommended that the policies
should be properly i mpleme nted and Indi a mu st be
promoted as a f ull ti me tourist destination .

Ninety seven studies have been rev ie wed during the

course of pre sent re search work. It includes sixty stud ies at
national le vel and the remaining thirty-seven at the
international level. The national studies consist of twenty
Ph.D thesis, twenty-f ive research papers and fiftee n articles.
The international stu dies consist of one dissertation and
thirty si x research papers.

2.6 RESEARCH GAP

The review of literature indicates that a number of

studies have bee n conducted at n ational and international
level on tourism, but at the na tional level re searche rs
mainly emphasized on the prob lems and prospects of
diffe rent aspe cts of tourism i ndustr y. Further it reveals that
majority of the studies are based on the different issues of
developed de stinations and most of them have applied
tradition al measureme nt tools. Very few concentrated efforts
have been made on service quality mea suremen t of tourism
industry of a parti cular st ate. These studies have hardly
cove red the tourism development and potential of a
particula r area. However, what re search ha s been conducted
on Punj ab tourism, it was done i n the distan t past, a nd
the se studies have little relevance in the present

86
circumsta nces. So far no proper study has bee n conducted
to assess t he management of to urism i n Pu njab and to
evaluate the tourists’ perceptions through service quality
level availed by them during the ir v isit. Hence, there exists
a rese arch gap and the present study entitle d “Management
of Tourism in Punjab: An Appra isal” is an attempt to fill
this gap.

********* *

87