SANEI: Ongoing Studies

Economics of Nature-Based Tourism in South Asia

This proposal aims at studying the economics of nature-based tourism in South Asia. Many developing countries including those in South Asia, look forward to global tourism as a major source of foreign exchange. Some environmental economists too, view nature-based tourism as a way of contributing to the preservation of ecological resources and systems. Such tourism plays a major role in the economies of three countries in South Asia namely, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives, and contributes not insignificantly to other countries. This study proposes to address the following two issues: (a) the impact of property right and regulatory structures on the sustainable growth of such nature-based tourism and (b) the role of this tourism as a mechanism to transfer the global environmental values associated with these natural resources. The secondary data related to such tourism, and case studies in four countries of South Asia (i.e., India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh) would be analyzed to see how far nature-based tourism contributes to economic growth; what are the implications of current policies, property rights and management practices for the sustainability of this economic activity; and how far this tourism works as an incentive to preserve the natural resources in these developing countries. The study will be carried out in collaboration with institutes functioning in all the four countries, and will be coordinated by the Centre for Development Studies, (Trivandrum, India), Institute of Environment, Development and Strategic Studies, North-South University (Dhaka, Bangladesh), and the Department of Economics, University of Kalyani, West Bengal, India.

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