Analysis of Uttarakhand Tourism Policy 2023: A Sustainable Tourism Perspective

Tourism became the world's largest industry in the 20th century and is expected to grow even more rapidly in the 21st century. The growing concern regarding the sustainable development of the socio-economic and environmental development of tourist destinations has become a matter of serious discussion in the Himalayan region. Uttarakhand tourism, like international tourism, is also facing an important question: can it grow at a rapid pace without harming or destroying the natural and built environment? Both must be protected if future generations can enjoy the same benefits of travel and tourism. Uttarakhand hosted 39.2 million tourists in the pre-pandemic year 2019. This is almost 4 times the population of the state for Uttarakhand. This is undoubtedly a boom for tourism and allied industries. But this also raises the question of how much tourism activity can an area support? Because tourism is as vulnerable to such ecological crises as it itself contributes to it and this sensitivity comes at a heavy cost to nature and local people as tourism adversely affects the physical and cultural environment in most places, unless prohibited by the authorities. Now is the time for tourism policies to focus on sustainability. The Uttarakhand government announced a new tourism policy in March 2023 and passed it in the Gairsain assembly session. This Policy shall remain in effect for 7 years from the date of this policy. In this research paper, Uttarakhand Tourism Policy 2023 has been analysed from the point of view of sustainable stable tourism and discussion on the new initiative which will be adopted in the policy which encourages sustainable tourism in the Uttarakhand state.