- Promoting sustainable tourism in remote areas by developing basic amenities there is a great idea to address the issues of over tourism as well as employment in a country like India – Sanjay Basu
- It is important that destinations should avoid overcrowding and for this they should do a carrying capacity study before promoting tourism promoting sustainable tourism in remote areas by developing basic amenities there is a great idea to address the issues of over tourism as well as employment in a country like India – Mandip Singh Soin
- We (Nepal) are very cautious about overcrowding. That is why recently the Nepal government has increased the royalty fee for the spring season – Deepak Joshi
- There are many remote destinations which can be opened up to easily take loads off from over crowed destinations and fragile areas – Paras Loomba
- We (Sri Lanka) don’t want to be an overcrowded destination. We always believe that quality of tourists is more important than their number – Chalaka Gajabahu
Over-tourism poses a significant threat to global destinations, threatening their natural beauty, cultural heritage, and the well-being of local communities. Excessive tourist numbers exceeding a destination’s capacity manifests in environmental degradation through increased pollution and damage to fragile ecosystems, alongside social disruption marked by infrastructure strain, cultural erosion & rising living costs for residents.
The very assets such as heritage sites, natural landscapes, and cultural traditions that attract tourists are being compromised, leading to diminished visitor experiences and a risk of long-term tourism decline. In India, iconic locations like Manali, Shimla, and Ladakh grapple with severe traffic congestion, waste management issues, and ecological damage, mirroring global challenges faced by destinations like Venice, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. Recognising the urgency of the situation, Japan is now considering a sharp increase in its departure tax to fund measures combating over-tourism.
Given this disturbing background, SATTE, South Asia’s leading travel show, recently held at Yashobhoomi (India International Convention and Exhibition Centre or IICC) in New Delhi, hosted an apt panel discussion on over-tourism titled ‘Over-crowded and Overlooked: Balancing the Scales.’ This discussion addressed the prevalent unsustainable situation of excessive tourist concentration in popular locations, while regions with significant tourism potential are overlooked.
The expert panellists discussed the rising challenges of over tourism and overcrowding of destinations and how these challenges can be overcome. While red-flagging critical issues such as rising greenhouse gases, deforestation, and plastic pollution, they stressed the urgency to address them by adopting sustainable model of development and responsible practices. The discussion was moderated by Sanjay Basu, the Chairman of Far Horizon Tours. Basu is also a member of India’s leading national industry body CII’s National Tourism and Hospitality Committee and as Chairman he is also heading CII’s Sub Committee on Sustainability, Eco, Adventure and Cruise Tourism.
Speakers on the panel included Mandip Singh Soin, Founder and Managing Director, Ibex Expeditions; Paras Loomba, Founder-Director of Global Himalayan Expedition; Chalaka Gajabahu – Head of Destinations at Classic Destinations, Sri Lanka and Deepak Joshi, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board.
Challenge of Overcrowding
Initiating the panel discussion, Basu drew the attention of the panellists and audiences towards the rising level of greenhouse gasses and other environmental challenges and their detrimental impact on global climate patterns and ecosystems. “Today greenhouse gasses are rising. Glaciers are shrinking. Plastic is seen everywhere, despite the best of efforts to reduce its use. At some destinations, the situation is grim,” said Basu.
Highlighting the issue of overcrowding at certain destinations in India, Basu said that to address overcrowding at popular destinations in India, and reduce their burden, the influx of tourists should be diverted from over-crowded destinations to so many lesser-known destinations, which are equally or more beautiful, but have not been tapped because of lack of accessibility and basic infrastructure. He referred to popular hill station Mussoorie as an example of overcrowded destination that sometimes is very difficult to reach due to overcrowding and traffic jam. In an attempt to develop a sustainable model of tourism, Basu also informed that his team has created a carrying capacity model for the country, and submitted it to the government.
Creating Balance
Joining the discussion, Soin, a prominent Indian mountaineer and adventure travel expert and also the Founding President of the Responsible Tourism Society of India, an organisation dedication to promoting responsible and sustainable way of tourism, expressed his concerns over the growing trends of overcrowding at popular destinations in the country. “We have observed a troubling situation in certain destinations in the country where beautiful and scenic destinations have become over-crowded due to uncontrolled influx of tourists and are losing their charm,” he said.
Soin has also been the Senior Vice President of the Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI), and is widely recognised for his extensive efforts in promoting responsible and sustainable tourism and articulating the message of the preservation and conservation of India’s natural, cultural, and historical heritage to governments and industry stakeholders.
“A case in point is Ladakh, which has become an overrun destination, and, as a result, is facing huge pressure on its natural resources. Thus, it is imperative that we create a balance by implementing sustainable tourism practices, diversifying the tourism offerings, and managing visitor flow effectively,” he further added. While agreeing that natural resources such as wildlife and scenic landscapes are central to tourism promotion, the tourism industry also has to balance out and make sure that destinations do not get overrun like what happened in Ladakh. Other than Ladakh, popular North Indian hill stations such as Mussoorie, Manali, and Nainital are facing significant challenges due to over-tourism.
It is important that destinations should avoid overcrowding and for this they should do a carrying capacity study before promoting tourism, suggested Soin. Referring to India’s National Strategy for Sustainable Tourism, released in 2023, to promote sustainable tourism practices, Soin stated that the strategy requires that destinations seeking development funding from the Ministry of Tourism must submit a carrying capacity report.
The carrying capacity study is central to India’s national sustainable tourism strategy. The study assesses the maximum number of tourists a site can handle without causing significant environmental, social, or economic damage.
Empowering Remote Communities
Turning to Paras Loomba, Founder-Director of Global Himalayan Expedition, who is an electrical engineer by training, Basu asked him to share his experiences of sustainable tourism; how he has been contributing to this cause. Joining the discussion, Loomba said that one of his endeavours has been to do something meaningful in remote and difficult areas of the country, which lack basic infrastructure like roads and electricity and consequently employment opportunities leading to migration to cities in search of jobs. “Using my electrical engineering mind-set,” he continued, “I worked to bring electricity and other amenities to villages in Ladakh so that jobs are created at the local level and the migration to cities is stopped.”
Agreeing that over tourism is a critical issue; Loomba said that at the same time lack of job opportunities at local levels in remote villages is also an important issue that is related to the livelihood of rural communities and forces most of them to migrate to cities where jobs exist.
“To create jobs at the local levels, developing basic infrastructure is necessary. So we started a very different kind of expedition to light up villages in remote areas of Ladakh,” he added. “With roads, electricity and other basic infrastructure there, tourists are now also exploring those areas and staying overnight there. Having accommodations close to locations are necessary so that people can stay there during the night. So we ended up distributing tourists from overcrowded spots to remotes areas within Ladakh and thus creating some sorts of balance,” said Loomba.
According to Loomba, doing carrying capacity study, managing tourist footfall, and preserving destinations is the responsibility of government authorities and other stakeholders; but there are many remote destinations which can be opened up to easily take loads off from over crowed destinations and fragile areas. “It has always been our endeavour to try to bring basic amenities and prepare blueprint for promotion of tourism in these areas, which can become beautiful destination for tourism in future,” he concluded.
Basu observed that subject to carrying capacity, promoting sustainable tourism in remote areas by developing basic amenities there, making them accessible to tourists and keeping rural remote communities in their homeland by creating job opportunities right at the local levels is a great idea to address the issues of over tourism as well as employment in a country like India.
Lanka’s Quality over Quantity
Moving to the panellist from Sri Lanka, Chalaka Gajabahu – Head of Destinations at Classic Destinations, Basu remarked that Sri Lanka has done amazing work in ecotourism. “Being an island country where tourism is extremely important, at the same time where it is crucial that tourism is developed in a sustainable way, post pandemic, Sri Lanka has done a great job in promoting tourism in sustainable way by focusing on quality rather than just on number. The island has created a very nice model of sustainable tourism development with a focus on culture and nature,” stated Basu, asking Gajabahu how Sri Lanka Tourism managed to do that.
Gajabahu, who until recently was the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Board, started by saying that tourism plays a pivotal role in Sri Lanka’s economy because tourism is a third biggest foreign exchange earner for the country. “Being an island nation, sustainability plays a very key role in our tourism development model and we don’t want to be an overcrowded destination. We always believe that quality of tourists is more important than their number,” he stated. Unlike Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia, Sri Lanka does not want to receive the very large number of tourists. “Our approach is similar to Maldives; our arrival figures are also almost similar to the Maldives. Sri Lanka receives about 2 to 2.3 million foreign tourists annually. The average expenditure of a tourist in the Maldives is about $500 whereas in Sri Lanka right now it is about $180,” said Gajabahu, adding assertively that they don’t want to build a concrete jungle in the Island Nation, which is a nature-based destination and should always be like this.
About how Sri Lanka’s tourism bounced back, Gajabahu said that more than the COVID pandemic, it was the economic crisis that severally impacted tourism in the Island. “Therefore, to recover from the economic crisis, the tourism sector had to play a big role, but it was so difficult due to negative and sensational media coverage about our crisis all over the world by all big channels,” he recollected. “As we did not have enough money to run global campaign through traditional media, we turned to social media influencers from all over the world, but especially from India, inviting them to visit Sri Lanka and promote it,” said Gajabahu, adding, “That’s how we faced travel advisories issued by various embassies and high commissions asking their nationals not to travel to Sri Lanka, and within a year or so, we overcame the impact of misinformation and started recovering.”
Talking about over tourism, Gajabahu said that Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park, famous for Sri Lankan leopards, is among few places in Sri Lanka where we face problem of over tourism. “Yala is overcrowded because people visit it in huge number to spot the majestic cats. So we need to redistribute these iconic leopards properly across other national parks in Sri Lanka to create a balance,” he concluded.
Nepal’s: Control & Diversify
Moving to Deepak Joshi, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board, Basu commented that Nepal tourism has done a fantastic work in their side of the Himalayas. The country has done wonderful planning with the trek identification to control the number of trekkers. With these measures overcrowds of trekkers have been diverted towards the overlooked parts of the Himalayas. Basu asked Joshi to share how Nepal did these things.
Responding to Basu, Joshi said that Nepal adopted a gradual and phase-wise strategy to open the country for tourism. “Nepal began promoting tourism about seven decades ago, starting with the long-haul inbound tourism; then three decades ago we started the second phase of tourism inflow from Southeast Asia, and in last 20 years, we are also promoting domestic tourism,” said Joshi, adding that initially the number of Tourists visiting the Himalayas was very small.
Regarding measures to address overcrowding in the Himalayas, Joshi stated that around five decades ago, the Nepal Government initiated establishing a system of restricted, protected, and conservation areas, categorized for varying levels of preservation. “This approach has since enabled Nepal to promote tourism as a means of conserving Nepal’s natural and cultural heritage. This has worked so far with considerable success,” he added.
Now while promoting tourism, Nepal is diversifying its tourism areas, especially for adventure activities like trekking and expeditions. The influx of tourists that visit Nepal is season-based; sometimes the season is just for two months. “However, even during this short duration, we don’t have the problem of overcrowding. Still we are very cautious about overcrowding. That is why recently the Nepal government has increased the royalty fee for foreign climbers attempting to climb Mt Everest from $11,000 per person to $15,000 during the spring season (March-May),” said Joshi adding that besides this that there are other rules to control influx of climbers. Nepal’s most popular trekking trails are the Everest and Annapurna region, but there are many other trails as well and the Government of Nepal are now expanding the number of our trails in different parts of the Himalayas, said Joshi, adding that some new trails have already been identified and being developed.
Discussing emerging challenges, Joshi said that the whole global tourism is transforming from the triangle-focussed tourism to experiential tourism and in the digital age, using digital tools, visitors are discovering hidden areas throughout the country and curating their bespoke itineraries themselves. “As the world moves towards this evolving tourism landscape, natural and cultural heritage, traditions, culinary practices, and festivals are increasingly becoming vulnerable to detrimental impacts. This necessitates an increased focus within the tourism industry on the critical issue of environmental and cultural preservation, and the implementation of proactive steps to protect the planet,” Joshi concluded.
Responsible Travellers
Basu lauded Nepal’s approach to manage tourism in the Himalayas, including expanding the number of climbing trails. While praising the steps taken so far by governments and industry bodies towards developing sustainable model of tourism development, Basu noted that it is also vital that travellers become responsible travellers. “Unfortunately we see many travellers behaving in very irresponsible ways in our country, necessitating a compelling change in the education process to make travellers responsible because if travellers are responsible towards sustainability, destinations will have a much easier task to preserve this planet and its resources for the future generations,” Basu added.
To address the need for greater traveller responsibility, as highlighted by Basu, Soin talked about the Ministry of Tourism’s responsible tourism campaign undertaken a few years ago, featuring guidelines compiled from global best practices. These guidelines encouraged travellers to consider environmental impact right from the planning stage of their holidays. For instance, guidelines advised travellers to check travel companies for their environmental policies, eco-certifications, or recognition for sustainable tourism before booking. The initiative aimed to educate and empower travellers to make responsible choices, thereby reducing the industry’s environmental burden.
In his concluding observation, Basu said that he wishes the crowds outside the conference hall, which makes profit from tourism, would also to do it in a sustainable and responsible manner. To sum up, the panel dwelled upon critical aspects of sustainable tourism and developing eco-friendly models for remote and under-visited areas, aiming to alleviate pressure on overcrowded destinations. Sri Lanka’s and Nepal’s models that seek balance between tourism growth and environmental preservation were praised during the discussion.
Furthermore, the panel advocated for a shift from luxury-seeking holiday to community-based tourism, supported by initiatives like homestay development. The session underlined the role of responsible tourism by travellers in mitigating the impact of over tourism on destinations. The session also highlighted an urgent need to shift towards a sustainable tourism model that distributes tourists from overcrowded to overlooked destinations, with the objective of sustainable and equitable tourism growth.