CHAPTER 5

FINDINGS,
SUGGESTIONS AND
CONCLUSION

1
 CHAPTER 5

FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION

5.1 FINDINGS

The last chapter will give us conclusion and suggestions based on

analysis of all categories to improve tourism in Jammu and Kashmir. For
decades tourism industry growth has been a major contributor to
increased economic activity throughout the world. It has created jobs in
both large and small communities and is a major industry at many places.
It is the dominant economic activity in many communities. Yet, the
impacts of tourism to a community are not widely understood, even
where tourism is growing dramatically and should be of the greatest
interest or concern. Some of the key themes are presented by the
researcher in this chapter for better realization and to analyze the
findings. To properly understand, the answers to the research questions
are also presented in this chapter under different headings.

Tourism development in Jammu and Kashmir has created many jobs and
has also significant impact on the income level of local community. It has
been discussed in chapter five that tourism became the main industry in
this particular state and is the major job provider. Local community
believes that tourism is a blessing for them as very few other economic
activities provide them jobs. It is found that local community is happy to
get job although they sometimes express dissatisfaction about salary,
working condition and job insecurity. Local people believe that although
they are earning low wages from tourism but it is comparatively better
than working in agricultural or other allied activities as in those sectors
wages are even lower, jobs are hazardous and also do not provide
expected social
2
status. They feel that entrepreneurs who established their businesses at
Jammu and Kashmir are doing a favour for them and therefore local
community tries to accommodate with what they get than being
demanding.

Findings show that most members of local community work in lower

level of tourism industry and think that lack of education and skill are the
reasons behind their poor status. Geographic location of this state creates
a barrier for industrialization and hence there are a few government and
private sector manufacturing industries in this area. Therefore getting a
secured and decent job is rare for local people and so any job opportunity
created for local people is perceived by them as a blessing because they
think that tourism related job not only provides wages moreover offers
dignity, higher status and honor within the community. Socio-political
environment contributes a lot to the misery of the people of Jammu and
Kashmir.

It is found that most local people who are employed in tourism sector are
very poor and do not have adequate education and skills whereas
educated and skilled middle class are less interested to serve in this sector
as they still believe that working in this sector is demeaning. This
approach is caused by the traditional social perception of the status of
tourism related work that is assumed to abase social capital of members
of the society. Researcher also finds that employers are not interested to
employ local educated people for clerical and managerial jobs as they
think that managing them would be difficult. They want to treat their
charismatic business strategies as business secrets and do not feel secured
to share these with others. This is why most of the mid and upper level
employees are non-locals and most of them migrate from different parts
of the state and country. They usually do clerical, office management,
tourist attending and guiding, front desk service, restaurant attendance,
3
sales and marketing, and

4
other managerial types of jobs and earn comparatively better salaries and
wages than the locals. Employers show discriminatory approach and
provide non-locals free accommodation and food but in case of local
employees they do not offer such free accommodation. Most non-local
workers are young and they usually do not bring their families in their job
area during initial stage of their employment and thus they can save a
larger portion of their earnings.

After analyzing all spheres of involvement of people in this industry it is

found that most economic benefits of development of tourism in Jammu
and Kashmir has been enjoyed by non-local entrepreneurs, migrant
workers and only a small segment of local people who have economic
and political power, education, professional and business skills were able
to get some benefits from this fruitful industry.

It is found that development of tourism has this impact with uniqueness

considering general status of women in the rest of the country. In chapter
five the role of women and their social status have been discussed in
detail and from that discussion it can be inferred that women’s formal
involvement in economic and social activities in semi-urban areas is rare.

Tribulations faced by pilgrim tourists in Jammu and Kashmir

Nowadays, tourism and especially pilgrimage tourism are fast growing

areas. It is a well known fact that prosperity of tourism will positively
contribute towards its development and the problems associated with it
will hamper the development process. There are many problems which
are faced by the pilgrimage tourists, the problem starts from the railway
stations itself. Pilgrims had to wait for busses for a long time, which are
usually over crowded. The private owners of the transport charge fare

5
according to their will. When the pilgrims get a bus they had to face the
problem of heavy traffic, language communication barriers, toilet
facilities and mostly the problem of security. After reaching the
destinations, the profit motivated shop owners do not attach much
importance to hospitality and cleanliness. The price list does not prevail
in these markets, so that they can charge the price of their will. Some
shop owners even sell the products above MRP (Maximum Retail Price).

Drinking water is an important problem faced by the pilgrims. Most of

the pilgrimage destinations do not have access to suitable water, and if
some of the destinations have, but not at all safe for the human health i-e,
not pure enough to drink. The parking facilities for vehicles are in a
haphazard manner, which is not matching the increasing number of
vehicles. The accommodation facilities available to pilgrims are
insufficient when compared to the number of pilgrims visiting these
sacred places. The heavy rush fills these sacred destinations with noise,
dust and dirt. The authority does not pay any attention to clean the waste
and ultimate burden falls on the shoulders of the local community. People
visiting Kashmir valley face the communication problem, as
communication facilities are not available at all. Existing network of
roads to these pilgrimage centers are inadequate to meet the increasing
needs of pilgrims. Some of the other problems that pilgrimage tourists
face are:

 Security concerns
 Lack of linkage among departments and trained professionals
 Untrained guides
 Issue of theft and harassment.
 Too much noise

6
5.2 SUGGESTIONS

From the above mentioned findings of this study, it is important to

suggest some practical measures to include local community and to
attract tourists to India and Jammu and Kashmir in particular.

Considering the findings and interpretations it can be said that both

government and private entrepreneurs admit that development of
pilgrimage tourism in Jammu and Kashmir has created positive and at the
same time some negative economic impacts on local community. This
finding should inspire concerned parties to work side by side with other
key organizations to maximize positive impacts and minimize negative
ones. Following recommendations may facilitate utilization of potentials
and prospects of development of tourism industry in Jammu and
Kashmir.

Resources and income generating opportunities should be redistributed in

a nondiscriminatory manner. Findings show that although development of
tourism in Jammu and Kashmir is economically a success story as it
revives local economy and creates diversified employment opportunities
but economic benefits of local community from this development is not
satisfactory. Jammu and Kashmir can take necessary steps to redistribute
resources effectively in an unbiased manner among local community
members and concerned stakeholders and facilitate ensuring income
generating opportunities. One can argue that in a free market economy
government interference may discourage development but considering
long term consistency and congeniality to reduce risk of probable socio-
economic unrest, government may pursue private entrepreneurs to include
more employees from local community. Jammu and Kashmir may give
preference to allocate tourist resources like land, new business license and
loans to local businessmen as they can hardly compete with non-local

7
entrepreneurs who are often economically and politically more powerful.

8
Entrepreneurial and service-oriented skill development training
programmes for local people should be increased. Proper training on
diversified fields should be arranged by government and private
entrepreneurs to develop and enhance skills and knowledge so that local
community can work in this industry with effective performance and
dignity. Jammu and Kashmir government with the help of local
entrepreneurs may establish tourism training institute focusing local
community to develop professionalism.

Although Government is running many training institutes but local

community members face difficulty to access as those institutes are far
away from these people. Jammu and Kashmir government may provide
monetary benefits to locals during training period to encourage their
participation as most locals are poor and are not in a position to take
training for prolonged time leaving scopes for earning. Local
community’s lack of entrepreneurial skill is a major reason for their
exclusion from development of tourism. As most tourism related business
involves intensive services and these people generally have no prior
experience so they are not considered as a prioritized workforce. Apart
from that they also lack required knowledge to run a modern business in
a fierce competitive business environment. Hence Jammu and Kashmir
government should take appropriate measures at local level to initiate
capacity building and skill development training programmes to prepare
local community to perform effectively to harvest opportunities of this
leisure industry.

Effective measures should be taken to minimize negative impacts of

tourism. According to government policy makers and officials as local
people are poor so any development process will bring positive impacts
for the community as it creates employment and income. This
presumption of
9
positive impacts influences them to ignore assessment of real holistic
socio-economic impacts of development activity while formulating
policies and plans. They usually do not realize and consider that impacts
are different in extent and consequences for different levels of society.
Little attention been given towards what local people feel, think, need and
want. So, concerned policy making and implementing authorities need to
change their approach about local peoples’ involvement.

Appropriate maintenance measures for historic places, effective

marketing of tourist spots and potential places, patronizing those who are
effectively pursuing conservation of local cultures and government’s
formal allocation of budget for ensuring these measures can be
considered as a way out to protect local culture and heritage from
distortion.

Previous plans should be implemented and relevant policies and laws

should be revised effectively. Government officials want to keep power
within their control and unimplemented status of majority of
recommendations of tourism policy 1992 proves that bureaucrats are not
interested to patronize private sector to join the development process of
tourism in Jammu and Kashmir. In tourism policy 1992, government
highlighted private sector’s roles and declared that private sector would
get preferences in developing tourism sector. Despite this recognition,
lack of policy and regulatory reform has been hampering development of
tourism. Sometimes modifying relevant laws and policies can facilitate
adapting development process with the socio-economic dynamics of
target society. Therefore government should ensure that policies are
implemented in time and appropriate reforms are facilitated.

In order to increase the number of tourists to various religious sites Govt.

should maintain law and order and should undertake projects for

10
upgrading basic facilities like connectivity to religious destinations,
water supply,

11
drainage and health care facilities for most religious destinations across
the state to promote tourism development and private interest.
Amusement parks also facilitate flow of tourists to boost tourism
development. Essel world and Disney Land are such examples which
succeed to attract tourists to these destinations. The Government of
Jammu and Kashmir should open tourist information centers in major
cities of India like Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai etc to motivate and
guide both foreign and domestic tourists to visit the state of Jammu and
Kashmir. Tourist police has to be active at the tourist places as it has been
found that the tourists are being cheated. Price control mechanism needs
to have monitored as the tourists are being charged high. Waste
Management is essential for maintaining hygiene and attracting tourism.
Connectivity is also crucial for major growth of tourism in the state. It has
to be achieved by modernization of airport and fast track completion of
road and rail projects in the valley.

5.3 CONCLUSION

Based on the discussion on the findings presented in previous three

chapters major findings are identified and synthesized. Discussions of
findings are titled in a theme based manner so that reader can make an
idea about the issue that will lead to a clarified understanding. In this
chapter researcher discusses major findings related to uneven distribution
of economic benefits, unwillingness in policy reformation, significant
infrastructural development, demonstration effects, unequal involvement
of local community, negligence and bureaucratic bottleneck, exclusion of
local, community from policy formulation, women’s empowerment,
reason for not visiting Jammu and Kashmir and Problems faced by the
pilgrim tourists. Researcher also makes some recommendations and

12
presents those in different issue based discussions to overcome challenges

13
and better utilize opportunities. The above suggestions can overcome the
problems involved and will help in promoting pilgrimage tourism and
tourism in particular in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

14