A Study of Tourism Industry of Himachal Pradesh with Special Reference to Ecotourism

At present, poverty and environmental problems are some of the most important challenges human society is facing. It is difficult to address both problems at the same time because these two problems sometimes conflict. Poor villagers in less developed countries (LDC)/developing countries (DC) have no choice but to exploit natural resources around them, such as trees, to make a living which leads to deforestation. So environmental preservation is often neglected in these areas. That's why "ecotourism" is receiving more attention among conservationists as a means to promote both environmental preservation and income generation. Tourism is simply defined as "the practice of traveling for recreation". As the largest business sector in the world economy, the tourism industry is estimated to comprise US$ 5890 billion, or 9.9% of the total world GDP. Ecotourism provides a sustainable alternative to conventional tourism and has continued to gain momentum over the last two decades. India is one of the tourist hubs in the world. Himachal is one of the major tourist spots in India. The study is primary research based. The researcher here focuses on the various aspects of tourism like, Ecotourism, Tourism Industry Growth, Tourism Improvement Program, Ecotourism in India, Ecotourism in Himachal Pradesh and various ways to promote the ecotourism. The major objectives of the study are to investigate the major ecological and environmental situations in Himachal Pradesh, To analyze the basis for eco-tourism development and advantages of the eco-tourism resources, analyze the market characteristic of eco-tourism, and put forward the overall concept, concrete measures and actions, analyze the regional structure of eco-tourism, choose the steps to be taken and pattern to promote eco-tourism, Chi square test of independence is applied here on the sample of 100 people taken for the study.