Sustainable Tourism Development:

A study on Indian Tourist Destinations

Abstract

Tourism is one of the most perspective and dynamic businesses in the world. It is of great significance to plan and develop tourism purposefully and sustainability through the search for compromise between environmental, economic and social aims of society. The paper explores the benefits and costs associated with the tourism development, and also focus on the need for policy for tourism stakeholders to better understand the potential implications for destinations striving to achieve more sustainable tourism growth. The study highlights that for tourist destinations, tourism growth remains economically, socially and environmentally unbalanced, often as a result of rapid and unplanned growth visitor numbers such as sensitive natural and heritage sites, degradation of community-specific infrastructure and facilities, economic stress in off-peak periods, while unexpected events or shocks affecting destinations highly dependent on tourism. However, as the opportunities and challenges for tourism development will vary depending on the unique characteristics of individual destinations. A selection of key criteria and indicators are highlighted to help established and emerging destinations to strike a balance between the benefits and costs associated with tourism development and implement a sustainable tourism development vision for the future.

Keywords: Sustainable tourism, benefits, costs, tourist destinations.