Abstract: Tourism has grown and it is one of the contributors to the development of many countries. It is one of the industries growing at fast pace in the world and had an immense influence in the growth of the world economy. Amongst the many major countries with popular destinations, Mizoram is one of the destinations in India and the industry is gaining more popularity day after day contributing to the economy and the development of the state. The present study evaluates the Tourism sector in Mizoram with reference to the influx of tourist and how this influence the revenue generation for the economy of the State from 2007 to 2019.The study was done on the basis of the pre-covid-19 scenario of Tourism in Mizoram. Analysis for the study was done through various statistical tools. It was found that there exists a significant relationship between the tourist traffic and the Tourism revenue. Further it was also found that the number of tourist lodges in the districts of Mizoram has a significant influence on the revenue generated and that these tourist lodges revenue generated differs from district to district in Mizoram.
Keywords: Tourism, Tourist traffic, Revenue, Destination
Introduction
World Tourism Organization states that ‘Tourism is the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business or other purpose’ according to the World Tourism Organization (WTO, 1990). According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, Tourism is an important sector for economic development and employment generation throughout the world. In 2019, tourism directly contributed contributed 10.4% to global GDP US$ 9170 Billion and 334 million jobs worldwide i.e. one in ten. (Sofronov, 2017) and Sinha (2017) describes that tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest developing industries. Paul (2012) stress that tourism is considered in many communities, especially in emerging countries as the main tool for development, and the only path for increasing the quality of life. According to the study done by Nayomi & Gnanapala (2015) Tourism’s leads to the increase in the level of foreign currency inflows, infrastructure development, employment generation, regional development, economic multiplier effects and introduction of new management and educational experience actively affect various sectors of economy, which will have a positive impact on the social and economic development of the country.
Lalneihzovi and Lalrinchhani (2017) in their study stress that travel and tourism is an integral part of India. India is a big tourist generating country with outbound tourists going abroad for leisure and other business as well as domestic tourists for travelling within India. According to the report of the World Travel and Tourism Council, Tourism in India contributed 6.8% (USD 191.3 Billion) and 8.8% of total employment.
Mizoram is predominantly a hilly state, well blessed by nature, nestled between Myanmar and Bangladesh. It is blessed with unique landscape and rich culture and tradition, different varieties of flora and fauna and unexplored ecosystems provides a taste of different experience for the tourists. In addition, it has a moderate climate that prevails throughout the year. There is no doubt that Mizoram is an ideal destination for the tourists who are increasingly in search of unique experiences. The Ministry of Tourism identified the state “paradise unexplored” as the tourism potential of Mizoram in general has not been fully explored.
Mizoram is located in the North Eastern corner of India in between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Shaped like a narrow inverted triangle and the Tropic of Cancer runs through the heart of the State. The total geographic area is 21, 087 Sq. Kms , 88.93 % of its area is covered with forest (India State of Forest Report, 2015). The State with 52.11 % is the most urbanized of the population living in urban areas (Census Report, 2011). The state has an impressive literacy rate of 91.33% (Census Report, 2011). English is the main medium of education, though the Mizo language is widely spoken. The local people patronize their rich and tribal cultural heritage, colorful customs and lively traditions even today. The State is mainly a tribal state. The total population of Mizoram is 10, 97,206 and the population density is 52 per sq. km. as per 2011 Census Report.
Nayomi & Gnanapala (2015) discussed in their studies that tourism industry paves the way for economic benefits to the host and the guest countries. Tourism is an important sector that has evolved and developed in the last few decades, Chakrabarty (2016) discussed that tourism have contributed significantly to employment, income, balance of payments, international relations and health. So the industry is considered to be one of the fastest growing and crucial industry, according to Sinha (2017). Sofronov (2017) further in his study discussed that tourism is one of the important economic activity in most countries around the world. The outlook for the tourism sector despite the emergence of a number of challenging headwinds remains robust and will continue to be one of the main players for wealth and employment creation in the global economy.
The study was done on the basis of the data collected that exist before the pandemic, so, it will revolve around the scenario that existed before Covid-19 issues. This will help us understand what was the situation that existed in the Mizoram Tourism Sector? and the impact it had in the state before the virus hit the whole Industry worldwide.
Objective:
1. To understand the Tourism scenario in Mizoram
2. To analyze the Tourist Traffic of both domestic and foreign tourist in Mizoram
3. To examine the performance of Tourist lodges in Mizoram
Research Questions
1. Is there a significant relationship between the revenue generated by tourism and the tourist traffic?
i) Does domestic tourist traffic have a significant impact on the tourism revenue?
ii) Does foreign tourist traffic have a significant impact on the tourism revenue?
2. Are Tourist lodges having a positive contribution to the tourism revenue?
3. Is there is a significant relationship between tourist traffic and revenue generated by tourist lodges?
Research Methodology
To analyze the Tourism sector in Mizoram secondary data was collected from the required source and the research is wholly based on such data. These data were further analyzed through the tools like correlation and regression to get the required results and answer the research questions of the study. In order to understand the impact of tourism sector in Mizoram it is important to analyze the revenue generated by tourism and how it is significantly related or not related to tourist inflow in the region. Here effort is also taken to understand how district lodges perform in the process of revenue generation by testing whether there exist a significant difference.
Table: 1 Number of tourist arrivals in Mizoram (Domestic and Foreign)
From the table it can be seen that the state of Mizoram has seen development in the influx of tourist in the region. There are many activities and projects taken up by the Directorate of Tourism, Government of Mizoram which plays a crucial in the development of the tourist traffic in the state. These projects include development of tourist circuits and eco-tourism which are under the central scheme Swadesh Darshan Scheme. Apart from this under the New Economic Development Policy of the state Homestay project was introduced and developed in various destinations in the state. The Tourism department of the state organizes various fairs and festivals like the Anthurium festival, Winter Festival and other activities which have influenced the tourist traffic in Mizoram.
Even though there has been a significant improvement in the tourist traffic in the past years till present. There is still a big gap between the domestic tourist and the foreign tourist. As seen in the table in the year of 2018 – 2019 the foreign tourist arrival is just 1.8% compared to the domestic tourist from the total tourist arrival in the state.
Table 2: Total revenue generated by Tourism in Mizoram and revenue generated by Tourist Lodges in Mizoram.
The above table shows the revenue that has been generated by the Tourism Department of Mizoram and the revenue generated by the Tourist lodges situated in different districts of the state for the last twelve years. The data’s clearly shows that there has been improvement and increase in the revenue generated as well as the performance of the tourist lodges of the state. It also shed light on the fact that tourist lodges are playing a crucial role in the total revenue generated by Tourism in Mizoram.
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
In order to have better understanding on the role played by the influx of tourist traffic and the tourist lodges in Mizoram Tourism various tools like correlation and regressions are used. The following shows the analysis using the mentioned tools.
1. There is a relationship between the Tourism revenue and the tourist traffic.
Fig.1: Relationship between the total Tourism revenue and the tourist traffic.
Correlations
With a correlation coefficient of .910, it can be seen that there exist a positive relationship between number of tourist arrival and revenue collected by the state. Further, p value of .000 is less than 0.05 which indicates the correlation is statistically significant. Thus, we can conclude that there exist a positive and significant relationship between number of tourist traffic and revenue collected by the state of Mizoram.
i) Domestic tourist traffic has a significant impact on the tourism revenue?
Fig.2: Domestic tourist traffic and the tourism revenue
With a correlation coefficient of .908, it can be seen that there exist a positive relationship between number of domestic tourist traffic and tourism revenue collected by the state. Further, p value of .000 is less than 0.05 which indicates the correlation is statistically significant. Thus, we can conclude that there exists a positive and significant relationship between number of domestic tourist traffic and tourism revenue collected by the state of Mizoram.
ii) Foreign tourist traffic has a significant impact on the tourism revenue.
Fig.3: Foreign tourist traffic and the tourism revenue
With a correlation coefficient of .288, it can be seen that there exist a negative relationship between number of foreign tourist traffic and tourism revenue collected by the state. Further, p value of .364 is more than 0.05 which indicates the correlation is statistically not significant. Thus, we can conclude that there exists a negative relationship between number of foreign tourist traffic and tourism revenue collected by the state of Mizoram.
2. Tourist lodges are having a positive contribution to the tourism revenue.
Fig.4: Tourist Lodges and the Tourism Revenue
Note: *p < 0.05. TL: Tourist Lodge, TR: Tourism Revenue
The above table shows that the magnitude of R square came to be .932 indicating that 93.2 percent of the variation in action could be explained by the tourist lodge revenue. The regression coefficient value shows the change in the dependent variable with a unit change in a variable value i.e. there is an increase of .951 units in Tourist Lodges Revenue for every unit increase in the tourism revenue. The positively significant regression coefficient of .951 with a p-value of .000 revealed that tourist lodge revenue has positive effect on the total tourism revenue of Mizoram. Thus, it can be said the tourist lodges have a positive contribution to the total tourism revenue of the state.
3. There is a significant relationship between tourist traffic and revenue generated by tourist lodges.
Fig.5: There is a significant relationship between Tourist Traffic and revenue generated by Tourist Lodges
Correlation
With a correlation coefficient of .872, it can be seen that there exist a positive relationship between number of tourist traffic and revenue collected through tourist lodges by the state of Mizoram. Further, p value of .000 is less than 0.05 which indicates the correlation is statistically significant. Thus, we can conclude that there exist a positive and significance between number of tourist lodges and revenue collected by the state and that number of tourist traffic is influencing the revenue generated by the tourist lodges.
FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS
After analyzing the collected data there are certain aspects and points that requires to be considered. These points are as follows:
i. The Department of Tourism, Mizoram Government has taken up various projects, policies and schemes for giving an impetus to the Tourism sector in the state. These developments further have an impact on the arrival of tourist both domestic and foreign.
ii. There has been a significant increase in the number of tourist inflow from 2007 to 2019
iii. There is a significant relationship between the tourist arrival and the revenue. This shows that with the increase or decrease of the tourist inflow the revenue collected is also affected.
iv. In can be stated that the revenue collected through tourism industry in Mizoram is increasing at a consistent rate year after year from 2007 to 2019. With a positive significant relationship between tourist inflow and revenue generation it can be concluded that with the increase in the number of tourist in the state the revenue has also increased.
v. The number of lodges available in the various districts of the State has affected the revenue generation. With a higher number of lodges in certain districts the revenue collected have been found to be higher.
vi. There is a significant difference between the district wise tourist lodges and their revenue. This portrays that there are certain districts that attracts more tourist inflow and also have more available rooms for the tourist while other districts may lag behind.
vii. Tourist Lodges revenue generated in different districts of the state is the main contributor to the total tourism revenue of Mizoram. This portrays the fact that there are fewer avenues for the state to gain more revenue through tourism. This shows that development of alternative for revenue generated in tourism is required.
viii. As there is lesser number of foreign tourists traffic in the state the foreign tourist traffic has a negative significance to the tourism revenue of the state. Foreign tourist traffic can be one of the factors that can be one of the major contributors to the revenue generated by Mizoram Tourism. So, this area should given more importance and work towards development of the area.
ix. The study shows the importance of domestic tourist traffic as the driver of the tourism economy in the state while foreign tourist traffic lags behind. As the foreign tourist traffics contribution is crucial measures and policies is felt necessary to be developed and designed in order to market the Tourism in Mizoram at the international platform. For example: Marketing strategies that will advertise Mizoram as a tourist destination at the International level.
CONCLUSION
Tourism Industry in the world has earned its place as one of the main contributors to the economy against many of the major industries that have existed for decades. The industry is popular in many countries and has played a role as the main source of income for these countries. Mizoram is also one of those many destinations that have the potential for tourism sector, but such is not yet tapped to its full potential. The growth of this sector in the region is gaining steam over the past ten years and is having a positive prospect for further growth in the coming future. There are certain factors that play an important role for such growth amongst which are the availability of tourist lodges in the destinations and are considered to have a key role in the generation of revenue for tourism industry. The study here analyzed these variables to understand the trend of tourism industry in the region pre covid-19. From these analyses it shows that the growth is prevalent in the region and this growth of the tourism industry has attracted more inflow of tourist in the region and such have led to increase in the revenue collected. Along with this it was also found that the availability of tourist lodges has played an important role in contributing to the revenue. The need for giving more attention towards the foreign tourist traffic was also felt after analyzing the data; such can be achieved with better marketing policies and strategies, as this will have a major impact in the revenue generation for the sector. So, it can be understood that the tourism sector and its revenue generated has a significant impact on the economy of the state and that this sector have experienced significant milestones of growth in the past ten years and will prosper further with a positive post-covid-19 prospect.
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Website:
- https://wttc.org/Research/Economic-Impact
- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/india-earned-27-bn-from-foreign-tourist-arrivals-in-2017-minister/articleshow/62526432.cms
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Cite the original source:
Pachuau, Ramnunmawia and Renthlei, Dr. Lalhmingliana. “An Analysis of Tourism Sector in Mizoram.” Mizo Studies, X, no. 3, Sept. 2021, pp. 610–622.
Cite the original source:
Pachuau, Ramnunmawia and Renthlei, Dr. Lalhmingliana. “An Analysis of Tourism Sector in Mizoram.” Mizo Studies, X, no. 3, Sept. 2021, pp. 610–622.
