Impact of Eco-Tourism on Environmental Conservation: A Case Study of Velas

Abstract

Velas Village in Konkan strip of Maharashtra state India is known for its eco-tourism due to the turtles that visit it as part of their migration. This study conducts research about the views of tourists at Velas village and plots it on a tool - Destination Character Chart (DCC). DCC is a tool for visualization of the destination character which summarizes values of multiple indicators grouped into a 3-dimensional matrix with Positive impact of tourism on Y-axis and its negative impact on X-axis. This study has used dummy variables to represent the negative and positive impact of tourism and gives us mapping of the Velas Tourism on the two-by-two matrix which shows distribution of four groups of primary characters, each containing 4 positions – Champions, Sleepers, Exploiters and Misusers. The negative impact of tourism i.e., Resource Consumption at Velas village is represented in terms of the Conversation Aspect measured in reversed scale in terms of Clean Energy, Waste Management, Turtle nest conservation, prevention of consumption of Turtles and maintain carrying capacity while the positive aspect of tourism, i.e. Benefits is represented in terms of the dummy variable ‘Facility aspect’ measured in terms of Drinking water, medical services, tour guides, food and home stay. Findings highlights that Velas Villagers are Champions (as per the Tourism Impact Model analysis) and can effectively have Sustainable/Responsible Conservation due to Minimal Resource Consumption with Outstanding Benefits to Tourists in terms of Facility aspect and thus encouraging eco-tourism to the economic benefit of villagers. This promotes the Turtles by spreading awareness about conserving them.