Iyattas Article

PRO-POOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT FOR POVERTY REDUCTION IN SIKKIM HIMALAYA

Dr. (Mrs.) Iyatta Maharana Upreti
Department of Geography
Sikkim Govt. College, Tadong, Gangtok, Sikkim

Abstract:
The UNCED’s Agenda 21, chapter 13 identified tourism as one of key activities to provide alternative livelihood opportunities to mountain people in the process of attaining sustainable mountain development. Sustainable tourism development is now being recognized as an essential approach in achieving development goals without depleting natural and cultural resources or degrading the environment. Sustainable tourism encourages an understanding of the impacts on the natural, cultural, and human environments. Over the last 20 to 40 years, mountaineering and trekking have inflicted significant impact upon alpine and sub-alpine landscapes in many parts of the Himalayas. Up to some extent the same scenario is also prevalent in the Sikkim Himalayas recently.
The number of tourist visiting Sikkim is growing at a very fast rate during recent years. The main reason of this high growth in tourist’s influx was mainly due to relaxation in regulation that opened a numbers of areas for both domestic and foreign visitors, and development of tourist facilities in Sikkim as a whole in recent years. The real growth of tourist’s number in Sikkim has started from 1980 onwards. Until 1980, the state hosted only 10,000 visitors, which eventually increased to 2, 51,744 domestic tourist and 16,523 foreign tourist in 2005-2006. The Government of Sikkim has identified tourism as an important instrument for reduction of poverty and it has been actively planning its tourism industry. Poverty reduction through sustainable tourism development has an enormous potential in Sikkim. Keeping this in mind Sikkim Tourism and SNV, Netherlands/ICIMOD, Nepal along with local consultants (the author was one of the consultant) explored how socio-economic development through tourism can take place in rural parts of Sikkim, and developed a feasibility document on possibilities to start a poverty reduction project in Sikkim through sustainable tourism development in different destinations of Sikkim.

There is a greater chance in Sikkim to address poverty reduction through tourism development, which might bring economic benefits with simultaneous conservation links if they are properly managed and marketed. This can be materialized only by participation and involvement of rural communities in different tourism related activities directly or indirectly. Till date lot has been done in tourism sector mainly for economic benefits and diversification and for biodiversity conservation. This study shows how tourism can be improved in different remote destinations of Sikkim with new tourism development plan, so as to maximize its contribution for local sustainable development and poverty elimination, simultaneously with conservation strategies.
Sustainable tourism in the mountains has the potential of addressing all the concerned issues of providing alternative and environment friendly income and employment opportunities to the local communities and help in poverty elimination all across the Hindu Kush Himalayan region.