Role Of Transportation In Tourism Industry In Sikkim State, India

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of transportation in development of tourism industry in Sikkim state, India. Further, this study analyses the tourist inflow and the means of tourism transport in Sikkim state. This study is based on secondary data. Data have been taken from the Tourism Department and Transport department, Government of Sikkim. Simple percentage and multi-average growth rate have been used to have a comparative study of tourists’ inflows and increasing taxis in Sikkim. Further, Pearson correlation has been used to test the hypothesis. It is found that the taxis are used as a means of tourism transport in Sikkim.  The number of registered tourists’ transport is increasing every year in Sikkim along with the inflows of tourists in the state but not in same rate. It was observed that an average annual growth percentage rate of tourists’ inflow is 12.76 percent and for  taxis is 4.67 percent. The paper is limited to the study of road-transport and tourism in Sikkim. Since, taxis are the main mode of tourist transport, only the total number of taxis and its average annual growth rate is compared with the average growth rate of tourists in Sikkim. The percenatge rate of increase in taxis should increase equally to percentage increase in tourists inflows to meet the demand of tourism transport in the future. To meet the increasing demand of tourism transport, Government and stakeholders should give more focus on the improvement of tourism transport in state.