Assessment of climate induced seasonality of tourism for planning sustainable tourism - a case of Northeast India

Abstract

Tourism's contribution to India's economy is growing significantly. Its development in northeast region is perceived crucial for livelihood diversification and security in an otherwise agriculture-based economy. As tourism is climate-sensitive, and its potential depends on climate-induced seasonality, it is crucial to prioritise sustainable tourism. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the potential of tourism sector based on the climate-induced seasonality of tourism in Northeast India by using the tourism climatic index (TCI). Recognition of sustainable tourism by state tourism policies provides the impetus for the proposed research. Uniqueness of the study is that findings of TCI were matched with field survey. Further, perceptions of tourism service providers on climate change were gathered. Among the states considered, Meghalaya and Sikkim were found to have suitable climatic conditions throughout the year, while Assam has only five months. The paper concludes that capturing state-specific climate-tourism interaction is crucial for planning sustainable tourism.