Development of Strategic Interpretive Structure Modeling Linkages in Himalayan Tourism Industry

The Himalayan region is a popular tourist destination. It attracts massive inflows of tourist in this region round the year. Most of the tourist comes here either for adventures or pilgrimage purpose. Tourism is a multidimensional crucial development parameter of the world economy. Travel & Tourism’s impact on the economic and social development of a country can be enormous: opening it up for business, trade and capital investment, creating jobs and entrepreneurialism for the workforce and protecting heritage and cultural values. For the purpose of present study we have chosen the complete Himalayan Region which consists of Western Himalayas of Kashmir and Punjab Region, Central Himalayas of Kumaon and Nepal Region and Eastern Himalayas of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Eastern part of Tibet as it provides both adventures and pilgrimage tourism along with educational tourism. Tourism here is a source of employment opportunity which provide source of living to local people. Therefore there is a need to understand the factors influencing or impacting on tourism industry in Himalaya. For that purpose we utilized the Interpretive Structure Model for development of Hierarchical relationship among factors identified. This model helped us to understand the situations and problems associated to Himalayan tourism industry, which further get improved and rectified by partially utilizing flowing stream strategy