Community Development and Role of Tourism: A Case Study of Tourist Destination Manali in Himachal Pradesh (India)

Tourism sector has a significant role in the economic development of our country. Tourism sector has contributed 6.88 percent to the GDP and has 12.36 percent share in employment (direct and indirect) in the year 2014. It has also a significant share in foreign exchange earnings. The benefit of tourism mostly goes to the local community (Sonya&Jacqueline, Mansour E. Zaei&Mahin E. Zaei, 2013). In this paper, an attempt has been made to assess how the tourism industry has created an opportunity for the economic, political, social and cultural development of the local community at Manali in Himachal Pradesh (India) and also tried to study the problems that are associated with the tourism in the region. The study found that the tourism industry has been extending its contribution for the development of local community at Manali. It has been providing employment, business and investment opportunities, revenue generation for the government, encouraging the community to promote and preserve its art, culture and heritage, raising the demand of agriculture products, provided opportunities for local people to run and work in the transport business and by promoting MSMEs in the region. Besides the opportunities, the tourism industry has also added many problems to the local community. Traffic congestion, increase in water and air pollution, solid waste generation, degradation of the cultural heritage, ecological imbalances, rise in cost of living, increase in crime, noise and environment pollution, migration of people to the region, negative impact on local culture, and extra pressure on civic services during the tourists season, are the problems associated with the tourism. The study suggest that effective management of natural resources, dissemination of environment protection information, involvement of local community in decision making, professionalization in the working of local administration, extending the support of government in sponsoring the events, infrastructure development, tracking records of migrants with the help of local community to curb the crime rate, promotion and preservation of art, culture and heritage, involvement of NGOs, compliance of the rules can make tourism more beneficial in the development of local community.