Socio-Economic and Ecological Impact Assessment: A Study of Tourism in Sikkim

 

Manjushree Mishra¹ and Ajeya Jha²

 

¹Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies and Research Scholar of Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Majitar, East Sikkim, Sikkim - 737106, India.

²Professor, Department of Management Studies, Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Majitar, East Sikkim, Sikkim - 737106, India.

 

ABSTRACT:

This study focuses on three principal effects of tourism, namely, Economic, Social and Environmental. This study finds that although there are some negative aspects, most economic consequences of tourism is beneficial. These benefits include generation of income, employment, foreign exchange, government revenue, infrastructure building and so on. The economic impacts of tourism are usually considered to be beneficial for countries and localities. The real controversies lie in tourism’s impact on environmental and socio-cultural aspects. This paper tries to analyze that if managed properly, tourism’s overall positive effects are able to offset the few negatives in all three respects. The study has taken the state of Sikkim as the sample.  

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Physical Structure of Sikkim Himalayas

Sikkim is a tiny state with an area of 7096 km² and a population of 6, 07,000, with an average density of 86 persons per km² in 2011. Physically, it is an enclosed basin, nearly 60 km wide, between two deeply dissected north-south transverse ridges, each of them about 128 km long (Karan, 1969). The western ridge, Singalila, marks the boundary with Nepal and includes the peak of Kanchenjunga (8578 m or 28,168 feet), and to the east the crest of the Donkhya Range forms the boundary with Tibet (China). To the north, the central basin is cut off from Tibet by the broad convex arc of the Great Himalayan Range, in which the River Teesta rises. To the south, it is blocked by the resistant gneissic Darjeeling Ridge through which the Teesta has carved a deep narrow gorge to the west of Kalimpong.  This extensive bowl-like, mountain girdled basin has been formed by the erosive work of the Teesta and its tributaries. Due to the steady rise of the land from drainage channels, gentle slopes and deep soil are rare (Karan, 1989).

 

The state is situated in the most magnificent range of snow-clad mountains. It is rich in biodiversity and has a watershed comprising of several river/stream network.

 

Sikkim is rich in cultural diversity with distinctive ethnic groups such as Lepchas, Bhutias, Nepalese and Limbus. The Lepchas were the original settlers and are located in Dzongu around Kanchenjunga in the north district. Later arrivals include the Bhutias from Tibet who, subsequently, became the Chogyal rulers of the state and the Limbus are from Nepal.

The recent immigrants include Nepali ethnic groups and Tibetan refugees. (Rai and Sundrial, 1997).

 

Tourism in Sikkim

Tourism in Sikkim is principally based on the utilization of natural resources. Presence of scenic beauty, congenial climate, varieties of flora and fauna, and a hospitable host population are the basic prerequisites for a place to become a tourist destination. Sikkim is blessed with exquisite natural beauty, salubrious climate, rich biodiversity and a friendly host population. In addition to this the state’s unique cultural traits adds to its attraction (Sattar, 2011).

 

The state’s sustained tourist appeal depends on the preservation of its natural environment. This calls for a form of tourism which wisely uses and conserves resources in order to maintain their long-term viability. This can be made possible by striking a balance between the need for socio-economic development of local people and the need for conservation of the rich bio-diversity through the practice of alternative forms of tourism like eco-tourism, village-tourism, adventure tourism and agro-tourism (Sattar, 2011).

 

Traditional mass-market tourism mainly aims for profit maximization. However, it has been realized that such practice is environmentally unsuitable, creating undesirable impacts for Sikkim which may destroy the very resource base in the long run. Therefore, presently all efforts are on environment friendly segments such as ‘ecotourism’ and ‘rural tourism’. The strategies for expansion of tourism is based on the sustainable development paradigm so that this sector becomes a major source of employment, income and revenue as well as create economic incentives for conserving the resource base on which it thrives. The aim is for a tourism development that has to be sustainable – environmentally, economically and socially.

 

The Diversity of Mountain Areas in Sikkim

Mountains are highly diverse in Sikkim. Climatic zones are condensed over distances of a few kilometers. On a single mountain, one can experience a tropical climate at the base, a Temperate Zone at medium altitudes followed by alpine conditions higher up, and finally an arctic environment with snow and glaciers on the highest peaks.  Biodiversity is also impressive. Such diversity creates interest amongst tourists with multiple aspirations. 

 

The Specificity of Mountains for Global Tourism Development

The promotion of tourism in mountains is based on special features that are attractive for tourism. Among these are the clean cool air, the varied topography, the scenic beauty, and cultural landscapes. There are inherent challenges which attract some daring tourists, and particular mountain arenas for special sports and leisure activities (University of Berne, Switzerland, 1999)

 

Brief Literature Survey

Economic Impact Analysis

An economic impact analysis traces the flows of spending associated with tourism activity in a region to identify changes in sales, tax revenues, income and jobs due to tourism activity. The methods used to gather this information include: visitor spending surveys; analyses of secondary data from government economic statistics; economic base models; input-output models; and multipliers (Frechtling, 1994).

 

Fiscal Impact Analysis

Government revenues from tourism activity, in the form of taxes, direct fees, and other sources, are required to cover the additional costs for infrastructure and government services. Fiscal impact analysis identifies changes in demand for government utilities and services that have occurred as a result of some tourism-related action, and estimates the revenues and costs to local government of providing these services (Burchell and Listokin, 1978).

 

Multiplier Effect of Tourism

Multiplier effect means how many times money spent by a tourist circulates through a country’s economy. Money spent in a hotel helps to create jobs directly in a hotel, but it also creates jobs indirectly elsewhere in the economy. The hotel, for example, has to buy food from the local farmers, who may spend some of their money on fertilizers and clothes. The demand for local products increases as tourists often buy souvenirs, which increases secondary employment. Cultural shows arranged for their entertainment also create incomes for the local people. Greater tax revenues permit greater government spending which further helps in income generation.

 

Environmental Effects

The environmental resources, based on which development of tourism takes place sometimes are destroyed and degraded due to unregulated tourism activity. Such negative impacts from tourism occur when the level of visitor use exceeds the environment’s capacity to cope with use within the acceptable limits of change. But tourism has often been used as a catalyst to regenerate and improve the quality of environment. This can be obtained through comprehensive sustainable tourism which is holistic in approach, simultaneously taking into account environmental, socio-cultural and economic impacts (Sattar, 2010).

 

Socio-cultural Effects

Socio-cultural intrusion by tourists might be good when we learn things like freeing women, ending the class system, etc. But it is often cited as a negative impact. Sometimes sexual exploitation affects the poor women, girls and young men (Ashley et al, 2000). Local people can become more materialistic and imperialistic. The growth of tourism beyond a stage often sparks conflicts between the hosts and tourists (Joshi and Dhyani, 2009). Although difficult to measure, there is a relationship between tourism density and the growth of local resentment towards tourism. This happens when overcrowding reduces the value of the holiday experience and creates additional strain for resident population. To mitigate this, the tourists may be dispersed through eco-tourism, village tourism and adventure tourism.

 

The state is a biodiversity hotspot and is inhabited by a mix of ethnic cultural groups with a great diversity of cultural traditions and practices. The rich biodiversity, the picturesque settings, pristine lakes, forests and waterfalls, wilderness of trekking trails, Buddhist monasteries and religious artefacts and cultural festivals of Bhutia and Lepcha tribes constitute the important elements of tourism in the state. Sikkim thus provides a varied experience ranging from urban mass tourism, to village tourism, religious and cultural tourism, and adventure tourism (Joshi and Dhiyani, 2009).

 

Tourism trends in Sikkim

Until the year 1990, there was very little tourism activity mainly because of the stringent ‘Inner Line Permit System’, which restricted the movement of the tourists in the state. However, with the sustained effort of the state government and timely realization of the Central Government, Inner Line Permit was relaxed in the year 1990 which led to unprecedented flow of tourists from the successive years.

 

Table 1: Actual and Projected Volume of Tourists in Sikkim

Years	No. of Domestic  Tourists	No. of Foreign Tourists	Total
Actual
1990	56,706	4,719	61,425
2000	1,44,203	8,794	1,52,997
2010	3,51,579	12,649	3,60,047
Projected
2020	8,42,467	18,926	8,35,587
2025	13,04,121	23,151	12,72,940

 

Source: Department of Tourism, Gangtok. 

The figure shows that presently tourism in Sikkim is mainly of the domestic kind; foreign tourists comprise only 5.5% of the annual tourist influx. Majority of the tourists to Sikkim are from neighboring state of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Gujarat. A small section is also from Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand, Delhi and Rajasthan. As far as origins of foreign tourists are concerned, the majority are from western European countries, U.S.A and Japan. Majority of domestic tourists visit the state for the purpose of sightseeing. In comparison, most of the foreign tourists come here for taking part in various trekking activities and other programs under adventure tourism (Sattar, 2001).

 

Tourists flow to Sikkim follows a seasonal pattern, which is probably controlled by weather conditions and vacation pattern. Tourist arrival in the state has been found to be generally highest during the months of September to November or between March and late May. However, the number of tourists during the lean season of December to February has considerably increased over the last few years. This has created more demand for goods and services leading to increase of employment opportunities and income generation. With increasing per capita income and more disposable income, improved infrastructural facilities, better mobility, increasing desire amongst the urban people to explore and experience new areas the tourism in Sikkim is destined to grow further in future (Joshi and Dhiyani, 2009).

 

Furthermore, stagnation in the share of agriculture in the state income will compel the people to look for jobs in industry or service sector. Given the predominance of the Government sector in the job market and its waning capacity to absorb more people would worsen the problem of unemployment in the state (Chamling, 2002).  It has been realized by the state that the service sector holds much potential in the field of employment generation and the tourism sector can absorb a lot of people if the modern youth is properly skilled and equipped.

 

Sustainable Tourism Development

The concept of ‘sustainable development’ may be interpreted to mean a certain pace of development which can be sustained even in the very long run. Since development is a process, sustainable development is also a process in which the economic and social welfare of the people can be maximized with the minimum damage to ecology and environment (Mitra, 1998). With the process of development, there is a quantum leap from the subsistence economy to the monetized market economy which have resulted in a lack of sustainability in the use of forest resources. As a result, the need of the hour is to look for an alternative approach for forest use and evaluate their sustainability from an economic, social and environmental point of view.

 

METHODOLOGY:

a.      Nature of research:

b.      The present research is exploratory and empirical in nature with descriptive statistics based on the data on the belief expressed by experts having understanding of the growth of Tourism in Sikkim and its socio-economic and environmental effect.

 

c.       Research design:

The research-design for the research work is conclusive. To arrive at conclusions descriptive approach has been used.

 

d.       Objectives of the study:

i.      To measure the perceived economic impact of Tourism related activities in the state of Sikkim

ii.     To quantify the perceived impact Tourism related activities is making on the society in state of Sikkim

iii.    To determine the perceived environmental impact of Tourism related activities in state of Sikkim

 

e.       Hypotheses:

Keeping the above objectives in view the following hypothetic framework was proposed:

 

H₀1: Tourism related activities are not making any impact on the economy of state of Sikkim.

H₀2: Tourism related activities are not making any impact on the society of state of Sikkim.

H₀3: Tourism related activities are not making any impact on the environment of state of Sikkim.

 

f.       Sample:

The sample respondents of this research consist of people expected to have deep understanding of the recent development of Tourism related activities in Sikkim and its socio-economic and environmental effect. The criteria to select such expert are education, profession and experience. Those selected include people having post-graduation/professional degree, are observers of/involved in establishment/functioning of Tourism related activities in the state of Sikkim and have a minimum of 5 years of working experience. Details of experts selected have been given in the Table-2.

 

 

Table 2: Number of Experts from whom data has been collected

	Profession
Experience	Tourism Industry	Teaching (Management, Economics)	Government Policy makers
5-10 Yrs	4	4	3
10-15 years	6	6	5
Over 15 Years	5	4	5

 

 

 

g.      Sample size:

In all a sample size of 40 respondents was arrived at. This sample was considered statistically relevant for the study.

 

h.      Sampling method:

Random and judgmental sampling methods were used for the research. Industries and Colleges were chosen on judgmental basis but individuals were chosen randomly.

 

i.        Tools:

The tool is developed using Likert scale in a range of 1 to 5 with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 corresponding to Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neither agree Nor Disagree, Agree and Strongly Agree respectively.  The tool to measure Economic impact, social impact and environmental impact contains 24, 16 and 14 statements respectively. 54 responses from each of 40 respondents equals a total of 2160 responses for analysis in the survey. The statements were evolved based on an exploratory study to identify the economic, social and environmental issues that may be affected by the emergence of Tourism related activities. For the exploratory study not only experts but common people were also consulted. This was done to identify real as well as non-real issues. The experts were contacted personally by the researcher and after general introduction the tool was handed over to them. The confidentiality of the information obtained from the respondents was promised. The filled questionnaires were collected the same day and on a few occasions after few days.

 

j.       Reliability Analysis:

Data analysis:

All analyses were conducted using Statistical Software (SPSS) 16.0 version. t - test were used to determine the significance of  beliefs. For the hypothesis testing the confidence limit is set at 95%. At 95% the Z value is considered significant if it is beyond ± 1.96.

 

H₀: (1.96 >Z< - 1.96)

               Or

If Z is within ± 1.96 null hypothesis is accepted else rejected

 

RESULT AND DISCUSSION:

The result, analysis and interpretation has been discussed in Table 3, 4 and 5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 3: Results on Economic Impacts

 

Table 4: Results on Social Impacts

 

Table 5: Results on Environmental Impacts

 

CONCLUSION:

The salient findings given in the Table 1 is a clear indication that the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis holds good. In some of the questions bringing the adverse effects of tourism has not been implicitly confirmed through the analysis. All the necessary ingredients like geographical location, climate, culture, hospitable population and government support makes Sikkim a hot spot for tourism as discussed in preceding paragraphs. This is amply supported by overall analysis in the salient findings in Table 1 which shows that the tourism industry in Sikkim holds abundant future.

 

It is seen that most economic consequences of tourism are beneficial. They include income and employment generation, generation of foreign exchange, urbanization and increased regional development particularly in isolated areas, greater tax revenue permitting greater government spending, and overall rising image of the place internationally. At the same time, the spending of both domestic and foreign visitors produces a cascading effect of new money through the economy via the multiplier effect.

 

The study concludes that the economic benefits of tourism normally outweigh some of the negative features. It also acknowledges that appropriate remedial action can reduce/remove the negative effects. Eco-tourism, village tourism, social tourism, religious tourism and adventure tourism properly planned and executed can substantially reduce massing, congestion, discomfort to inhabitants, vehicular pollution, localized loading of the services and in turn benefit both urban as well as rural population of the state leading to sustainability of tourism industry in the state.

 

In addition to all these, the attitude of the local people and local government has to be very congenial to attract the tourists to the state. The tourism industry in India is based on certain nationalistic ideals such as Swagat or welcome, Sahyog or cooperation, Soochna or information, Sanrachana or infrastructure, Suvidha or facilitation, Safaii or cleanliness and Surakshaa or security. Last but not the least, the main core recital ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’, has now become the mantra for heartening India’s culture, and hence a way to make foreigners feel at home.

 

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2.       Chamling Pawan (2002), Speech on the occasion of 50^th National Development Meeting on 21^st December, New Delhi.

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10.     Sattar S: (Dec,2010-March2011) Tourism and Development in Sikkim: Published in IIPS Mimbai, ENVIS center,Vol.7,No 3-4

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