The nature of tourism and tourists/pilgrims' inflow in Uttarakhand Himalaya

The Uttarakhand Himalaya is bestowed with numerous places of tourists/pilgrims' interest. Mainly four types of tourism are practiced – natural, cultural (pilgrimage), wildlife/park, and adventurer tourism. This paper examines the nature of tourism and tourists/pilgrims’ inflow in the natural locales, pilgrimages, and administrative towns/cities in the Uttarakhand Himalaya. Data on tourists/pilgrims’ inflow in these tourist places and pilgrimages (2000-2018) were gathered from the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Council, Uttarakhand. The data were analyzed based on three types of places of tourists/pilgrims' interest. The paper is divided into three sub-sections – trends of tourists/pilgrims’ inflow (domestic and foreign) in all the places, domestic/foreign tourists’ inflow in the natural locales/administrative towns/cities, and pilgrims’ inflow (domestic and foreign) in the highland and the valleys pilgrimages. It has been observed that pilgrims’ inflow is higher in the pilgrimages than the tourists’ inflow in the natural locales and administrative towns/cities. Further, the two pilgrimages of the river valley – Rishikesh and Haridwar received more than 50% pilgrims during the period 2000-2018. The author observed that the trend of tourists/pilgrims’ inflow is not uniformed in all the tourists/pilgrims destinations. It has been observed that natural disasters, inaccessibility, and lacking infrastructural facilities have influenced the tourists/pilgrims’ in flow in the Uttarakhand Himalaya.