INTRODUCTION:

The tourism industry is world’s largest and rapidly growing segment of the economy. It is considered as an engine of economic growth in both developed and developing countries. Tourism industry contributes precious foreign exchange, generates employment, and helps infrastructure development and alleviation of poverty. However, the inconsiderate tourism development brings about disastrous implications on the economy, society, and environment of tourist destinations.

Sustainable tourism has emerged as the most comprehensive approach to achieve sustainable development and mitigate the adverse impacts of tourism. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) defines sustainable tourism as “sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social, and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity and life support systems”.

The sustainable tourism takes full account of its current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts, and addressing the needs of visitors, industry, environment, and host communities. Sustainable tourism development requires the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders as well as strong political leadership to ensure wide participation and consensus building. Achieving sustainable tourism is a continuous process and it requires constant monitoring of impacts and introduces preventive and corrective measures whenever necessary. (Page, et al (2003), Mowforth and Mount (2009), Hall and Richards (2003), Reddy and Wilkes (2013))

Tourism is perceived as the engine of economic growth, which generates income and employment, foreign exchange earnings, preserves the national heritage and environment, develops the infrastructure and maintains peace and stability in the destinations. However, the inconsiderate tourism development brought about the disastrous implications on the economy, society, and environment of tourist destinations. (Wilsons (2007), Brammer and Beech (2004)) The economic impacts associated with tourism development are the leakage effects, which prevents host communities from holding and retaining the gains from tourism, Mowforth and Mount (2003). The socio-cultural impacts associated with tourism are the demonstration effects, acculturalization, increase in crime and prostitution, health hazards, displacement of community, general host irritation or friction, and commercialization of culture, Sharpley (2003). The adverse environmental impacts of tourism are the deterioration of environmental quality, depletion of natural resources and overcrowding in destinations. The indiscriminate development of infrastructural facilities along coastal and forest areas have led to the destruction of biodiversity and ecological equilibrium of destinations. (Sawarkar, et al (1998), Solomon (2009), Gama and Solomon (2011)

Tourism development in India is at crossroads. Lopsided planning and haphazard implementation of tourism plans have brought a plethora of problems and issues, which challenge the economic, social, and environmental existence of the destinations. Globalization has dramatically transformed the Indian tourism industry. It has been expanding greatly during the last decade mainly due to the revolutions that is taking place on both demand and supply side. Tourism is primarily driven by the private sector, with a multiplicity of stakeholders where size ranges from micro-enterprises to large transnational corporations. Interaction between all these players along with tourists and local communities determine the overall impact of tourism on the environment. The Central Government and State Governments play a critical role in determining sustainable tourism policies and introducing legal enactments surrounding sustainable tourism. National Tourism Policy, Incredible India campaigns, Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Bharat Dharshan and AtithiDevo Bhava campaign are the manifestations of sustainable tourism development in India. India has endorsed the principles and guidelines on sustainable tourism formulated by various international conventions and declarations. Government of India introduced eco-tourism in India. The Ministry of Tourism designed and implemented a comprehensive “Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI) and Indicators for Tour Operators and the Accommodation Sector”. In this research paper, Delhi has been identified as a heritage tourism model, which represents Indian tourism.

Delhi is a tourist’s paradise. Bestowed with rich natural and man-made resources, Delhi is projected as a model tourism destination of India. The capital city of India, Delhi is located on the Banks of the river Yamuna and surrounded by Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. It has a perfect blend of rich past and vibrant present. From the ancient Hindu mythology to British period, the Delhi played as a major political, cultural, and commercial city along the trade route between northwest India and the Indo-Gangetic plains. It is the cradle of many ancient and medieval monuments and archaeological sites and modern structures. It is also seat of important offices of central government including the Parliament, Rashtrapathi Bhavan and Supreme Court. The Qutab Minar, Humayun’s Tomb, Red Fort, (world Heritage Sites), Prana Quila, Hazrat Nizamudhin Darga, Jantar Mantar, India Gate, Raj Ghat, Lotus Temple, ISCON Temple, and Akshardham Mandir are important tourist destination in Delhi, which draw millions of tourists from across the world. Delhi is recognized as cosmopolitan metropolis due to the migration of people from across the country. It is unique in rich and ancient cultural heritages and living traditions, which also offers unforgettable experiences to domestic and international tourists. Department of Tourism plays a vital role in the development of tourism in formulating and implementing tourism plans and programs. It also provides infrastructural facilities, safety, and maintenance of tourist circuits, dissemination of information through tourist information centers, imparting training to tourist guides, tourist taxi drivers, registration of hotels, and other tourism related activities. The Delhi Tourism and Development Corporation (DTTDC) are entrusted with the task of the promotion of tourism and maintenance of tourist infrastructure along with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

This study attempts to examine the impact of tourism on the economy, environment and society of Delhi. As this research comprehensively examines and evaluates tourism development in Delhi, the empirical research findings may disclose whether the tourism development is sustainable and how far tourism has helped Delhi to achieve economic, environmental and socio-cultural sustainability.

OBJECTIVES:

The broad objective of this research paper is to examine critically the policies and programmes followed by tourism industry in achieving sustainable development. The following are the main objectives of the research paper:

· Study the impacts of tourism on economy, ecology and society of Delhi,

· Examine economic, environmental and socio-cultural sustainability of tourism development in Delhi,

· Find the factors affecting sustainability of tourism in Delhi

· Suggest measures to make tourism development more sustainable.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS:

Based on the objectives of the research projects we have formulated four alternative research hypotheses. These are stated as follows:

· Governance mechanisms directly contribute to sustainable tourism development,

· Tourism development directly contributes to economic sustainability,

· Tourism development directly contributes to environmental sustainability,

· Tourism development directly contributes to socio-cultural sustainability of tourist destinations.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Sample, Sample Design and Research Methods:

This research paper examines three aspects of sustainable tourism development: economic, environmental and socio-cultural sustainability. A primary research has conducted for evaluating the sustainability of tourism based on the questionnaire survey conducted at different tourist places in Delhi and prepared a database consisting of responses of 141 tourists. The paper has identified and selected 36 attributes of sustainable tourism development representing four pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental and socio-cultural sustainability and tourism governance. The Likert scale is used in this research. The Likert scale is a non-comparative scaling technique and is one-dimensional in nature. The respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement with given statements by way of ordinal scale. A five point Likert scale is used to evaluate each variable based on the following scale: 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree, 5=strongly agree. (Punch (2005)) In this research, 36 statements are developed for collecting data from respondents based on the tourism governance, economic, environmental and socio-cultural sustainability.

Multidimensional Statistical Analysis-Factor Analysis:

The multidimensional statistical analysis – factor analysis based on principal component analysis (PCA) identifies the underlying dimensions of the perceived variables of sustainable tourism development. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) linearly transforms the original dependent variables into new uncorrelated variables called principal components, which summarize the information on dependent variables and arranges them according to their contribution to the explanation in the total dispersion of the observed variables. The component, which incorporates the most information on original data, comes as a first component and the component that incorporates the least information arranged as last component. (Hendl (2006)) The size of the eigenvalues reported as a part of initial run with principal component extraction determines number of factors to be selected and included in the varimax rotation.

In this research paper, variables with factor loading above 0.45 are considered significant as they indicate strong correlations among a particular group of variables and factors. (Tabachnick and Fidell (2007)) The suitability of data for factor analysis can be examined by applying Keiser-Myer-Olkin test and Bartlett Test of Sphericity. Keiser-Myer-Olkin test measures sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of Sphericity examines the null hypothesis that the original correlation matrix is an identity matrix. In order to be suitable for factor analysis, a data set must have a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value between 0.5 and 1.0 and Bartlett’s test of Sphericity must be statistically significant at p<. 05.

Variables of Sustainable Tourism:

Tourism Governance:

The first objective of this research paper is to examine how the tourism governance mechanisms ensure sustainability of tourism destinations in Delhi. The empirical research hypothesis is that tourism governance measures directly contribute to the sustainability of Delhi tourism. This research paper has identified 8variables for examining how tourism plans and tourism governance system ensure sustainability of tourism in Delhi.

· Tourism Plans:

Tourism plans, policies and programmes encourage tourism.

· Safety and Security:

Government ensures safety and security of tourists.

· Legal System:

Efficient legal system exists to deal with the violation of rules and regulations related to the tourism sector.

· Emergency Mechanism:

Effective and efficient mechanism to deal with emergency situations.

· Managed Tourist Destinations:

Effective planning and management of tourist destinations including temples, churches and mosques, national parks, wildlife, sanctuaries, coastal zones and natural heritage sites.

· Positive Behaviour of Officials:

Tourism officials maintain friendly attitude and positive behaviour towards tourists.

· Local community Engagement:

Local community is consulted and engaged in the formulation and implementation of the tourism plans and policies.

· Tourists Follow Sustainable Tourism Practices:

Tourists follow sustainable tourism practices.

Economic Sustainability:

Sustainable tourism development contributes to the alleviation of poverty and improvement of quality of life by providing meaningful employment, satisfactory remuneration and decent working conditions to the local community, especially the disadvantaged groups and women. The second objective of this research paper is to examine the economic sustainability of tourism in Delhi. The empirically testable hypothesis is that tourism is directly contributing to the economic sustainability of tourist destinations. This research has identified 5 variables to examine the economic sustainability tourism development in Delhi.

· High Inflation:

Tourism inflates general prices of goods and services, housing and properties.

· Employment Generation:

Tourism increases employment opportunities.

· Prefer Locally Made Products:

Tourists prefer locally made products to imported products.

· Poverty Reduction:

Tourism reduces poverty and improves standard of living.

· Trained Guides:

Guides and tour operators are properly trained and skilled.

Environmental Sustainability:

Tourism has a special relationship with the environment, because the natural and cultural environment is intimately associated with tourism. The third objective of this research paper is to examine the environmental sustainability of Delhi tourism. The empirically testable hypothesis is that tourism development directly contributes to the environmental sustainability of Delhi. This research projects has identified 15 variables for examining the environmental sustainability of tourist destinations in Delhi.

· Pressure on Water:

Tourism puts pressure on water resources.

· Pressure on Air:

Tourism puts pressure on quality of air.

· Pressure on Land:

Tourism puts pressure on land.

· Pressure on Transportation:

Tourism increases pressure on transportation infrastructure.

· Pressure on Natural Vegetation and Wildlife: Tourism puts pressure on natural vegetation and wildlife.

· Waste Generation:

Tourism generates huge amount of waste in the destinations.

· Water Management:

Effective and efficient management to mitigate pressure on water resources.

· Mechanism to Reduce Air Pollution:

Proper Mechanism to Mitigate the Air Pollution.

· Land Management:

Effective and efficient management to reduce the pressure on land.

· Transportation Management:

Effective and efficient management to mitigate pressure on transportation.

· Management of Natural Vegetation and Wildlife: Effective and efficient mechanism to reduce pressure on natural vegetation and wildlife.

· Waste Management:

Waste disposal and recycling is effectively managed in the destinations.

· Environmental Education:

Government promotes environmental education.

· Energy Conservation:

Government encourages sustainable consumption of conventional and renewable energy.

· Local Community Management of Environment:

Active contribution of local community in the environmental management.

Socio-cultural Sustainability:

Sustainable tourism ensures conservation and protection of precious natural and cultural heritages, which are ecologically and socio-culturally sensitive. The fourth objective of the research paper is to examine empirically the socio-cultural sustainability of Delhi tourism. The research hypothesis is that tourism directly contributes to social and cultural sustainability of tourist destination in Delhi. In order to examine the social-cultural sustainability of destinations in Delhi this paper has identified 8 variables.

· Preserve Social Heritages: ]

Tourism preserves and promotes the social heritages such as historical monuments, museums, churches, temples and mosques.

· Promote Festivals and Folklores:

Tourism protects and revives local festivals and folklores.

· Commercialisation of Culture:

Tourism development leads to commercialization of culture.

· Cultural Clashes:

Tourism leads to cultural clashes between tourists and local community.

· Anti-social Activities:

Tourism leads to anti-social activities such as drugs, prostitution, alcoholism, gambling and other criminal activities.

· Loss of Habitat:

Loss of habitat to local community due to tourism development in destinations.

· Bad Influence on Children:

Tourism has bad influence on children and juvenile.

METHODS OF EXAMINATION:

The descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation are used to describe precisely the perception of tourists about the economic, environmental and social sustainability of Delhi tourism. The factor analysis is utilised for examining the sustainability of tourism development in Delhi and identifying the factors, which influence the economic, environmental and social-cultural sustainability of Delhi.

DATA ANALYSIS

Descriptive Statistics

The descriptive statistics like, mean and standard deviation have been used for describing precisely the perception of respondents about the sustainability of tourism development in different destinations across Delhi. Through descriptive statistics, we examine whether the tourism development is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable from the perspective of all stakeholders of tourism. Table 3.1 provides the descriptive statistics for various sustainability indicators for the pillars of sustainable development: economic, environmental and social sustainability.

Table 3.1: Descriptive Statistics

Pillars of Sustainability	Variables	N	Mean	Std. Deviation
Tourism Governance	Tourism Plans and Policies	141	2.35	.903
	Safety and Security	141	2.52	.875
	Planned Natural Heritages	141	2.45	.806
	Officials Behaviour	141	2.62	.939
	Emergency Mechanism	141	2.91	.869
	Efficient Legal System	141	2.78	.964
	Planned Natural Parks	141	2.70	.696
	Tourists Follow sustainable Tourism practices	141	2.70	.963
Economic Sustainability	High Inflation	141	2.38	1.046
	Preference to Locally Made Products	141	2.31	.979
	Improve Standard of Living	141	2.03	.845
	Increase Employment	141	1.89	.911
	Trained Guides	141	2.82	.946
Environmental Sustainability	Pressure on Transportation	141	3.50	.997
	Pressure on Water	141	3.47	1.004
	Pressure on Land	141	3.45	.914
	Pressure on Natural Vegetation	141	3.43	.958
	Pressure on Air	141	3.36	.943
	Mechanism to Reduce Land misuse	141	3.28	1.015
	Mechanism to Reduce Air Pollution	141	3.25	1.070
	Mechanism to Reduce Water Pollution	141	3.23	1.033
	Mechanism to Reduce Pressure on Transportation	141	3.11	.993
	Mechanism to Reduce Degradation of Natural Vegetation	141	3.06	.973
	Promotes Environmental Education	141	2.68	1.016
	Local Community Contribution to Environmental Management	141	2.89	.972
	Promotion of Renewable Energy	141	2.86	.824
	Generation of Waste	141	2.56	1.136
	Management of Recycling of Waste	141	3.21	1.048
Socio-cultural Sustainability	Increase in Antisocial Activities	141	3.05	1.117
	Displacement of habitats	141	3.05	.921
	Cultural Clashes	141	2.85	.978
	Commercialization of Culture	141	3.20	.980
	Bad Influence on Children	141	2.54	1.059
	Loss of Identity and Values	141	2.52	.975
	Revives Local Festivals	141	2.16	.859
	Revives Socio-cultural Heritages	141	2.06	.927

Source: SPSS output from primary survey

Tourism Governance:

The tourism policy is an important pillar of sustainable tourism. It integrates the sustainability principles through strengthening institutional and tourism governance structure by integrating various stakeholders for providing direction to the tourism industry for adopting sustainable tourism development. Table 3.1 shows the descriptive statistics for sustainable indicators for tourism governance: Tourism Policy, Safety and Security, and Managed Tourist Destinations, Officials Behaviour, Trained Guides, Emergency Mechanisms, Efficient Legal System, Tourists Follow Rules.

The respondents have awarded a mean score of 2.35 to Tourism Policy. The low mean score on Tourism Policy explains that the tourism plans and programmes implemented by Delhi Government arenot contributing to sustainable development of the tourist destinations. The respondents recorded average scores 2.52to the Safety and Security, and 2.78 to Efficient Legal System, which establish that the government is not ensuring safety and security of tourists, local community and tourism business operators in Delhi. The respondents have given an average score of 2.45 to Managed Tourist Destinations, which discloses that the stakeholders strongly believe that tourist destinations are not effectively planned, managed and marketed. The high mean value of Positive Behaviour of Officials (2.62) establishes that Delhi tourism department and officials are maintaining positive behaviour and friendly attitude towards tourists. The respondents feel that is no emergency mechanism (2.91) to deal with exigencies is not established by Delhi government. The mean score of 2.82 on the sustainable indicator Tourists Follow Sustainable Tourism Practices proves that while visiting tourist destinations, the tourists do no adopt sustainable tourism practices.

Economic Sustainability:

Tourism contributes towards overall socio-economic development through accelerated growth of economy by improving living standard, generating employment and reducing mass poverty. The employment generation, poverty reduction, prefer locally made products and high inflation are the important economic variables used to examine the economic sustainability of destinations in Delhi. Table 3.1 demonstrates the perception of tourism stakeholders on the sustainability indicators: employment generation, poverty eradication, prefer locally made products and high inflation.

A low mean score of 1.89 has been awarded by the respondents to Employment Generation, which signifies that majority of stakeholders perceive tourism is not an important segment of an economy that offers employment opportunities to skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled unemployed youths from the local community. The mean score 2.03 of Poverty Reduction show that tourism is not being used as an effective strategy for eradication of poverty and improvement in the quality of life of the local population. The respondents assigned a low average score to Prefer Locally Made Products (2.31). The high mean score proves that the tourists do notprefer locally made products to imported products when they visit Delhi. The respondents have assigned a low mean value of 2.38 to the variable High Inflation, which proves that people do not experience high inflation and the general prices of goods and services are reasonable across Delhi.The average score on Trained Guides (2.82) reveals that in Delhi, the guides and tourist operators are not properly trained and skilled.

Environmental Sustainability:

The mass influx of tourists and indiscriminate exploitation of resources damage the purity of natural heritages. The depletion of renewable and non-renewable resources, such as pressure on water resources, pressure on land resources, pressure on transportation infrastructure and degradation of natural vegetation and loss of wildlife are negative impacts of tourism. These negative impacts adversely affect not only the sustainability and competitiveness of the destination but also the safety and security of human beings. Table 3.1 shows the descriptive statistics for the environmental sustainability indicators like pressure on water, pressure on land, pressure on transportation and pressure on natural vegetation and wildlife.

The respondents have assigned a mean score of 3.47 to Pressure on Water, which substantiates the argument that the indiscriminate water exploitation is creating pressure on water resources. Similarly, the average score on Pressure on Land (3.45) supports the argument that tourism development has created pressure on land and land resources adjacent to tourist places in Delhi.The mean score of 3.50 to Pressure on Transportation substantiate the argument that the mass influx of tourists and increasing tourism developmental activities are exerting pressure on existing transportation infrastructure and facilities. The mean score of 3.43 on Pressure on Natural Vegetation and Wildlife leads to the conclusion that haphazard tourism development in the natural heritages and the protected areas are damaging the biological diversity, physical integrity and tourism potentials of these tourist destinations. The indiscriminate developmental activities in Delhi have increased huge pressure on environment and especially air quality (3.36).

Table 3.1 shows the descriptive statistics for the sustainability indicators such as water management, land management, transportation management and management of natural vegetation and wildlife. The descriptive statistics on Water Management (mean score 3.23) prove that tourist destinations have effective and efficient mechanisms for mitigating the pressure on water resources. The mean score of 3.28 on Land Management substantiates that the government has established suitable land management system to mitigate the pressure on land and land resources. Similarly, the average score of 3.11 on Management of Transportation reveals that the destinations have effective mechanisms to reduce pressure on transportation infrastructure and facilities. The average score of the Management of Natural Vegetation and Wildlife (3.06) establishes that the state government has taken appropriate mechanism to mitigate the degradation of natural vegetation and loss of wildlife in Delhi.

The respondents have awarded a mean value of 2.56 to the sustainability indicator Waste Generation. The findings disclose that tourism is not responsible for generating huge quantity of waste in the tourist destinations. However, the mean score of Waste Management (3.21) reveals that the destinations have efficient and effective waste disposal and waste recycling mechanisms to process the waste.

The descriptive statistics on Energy Conservation (2.89) reveals that the government is not vigorously promoting sustainable utilisation and conservation of both conventional and non-conventional energy among the local community and the tourism business operators. The respondents have assigned a mean value of 2.68 to Promote Environmental Education, which substantiates that the government is not providing environmental education and awareness to the tourists, local community and business operators. The mean score of 2.89 on Community Management of Environment suggests that the local community is not integrated in the sustainable management of environment in the tourist destinations.

Socio-cultural Sustainability:

Socio-cultural sustainability is a critical component of sustainable tourism. Tourism helps to conserve and preserve historical and cultural heritages. The indiscriminate mass tourism has increased competition for the scarce resources, which has resulted in many anomalies and undesirable developments in the society such as antisocial activities, cultural clashes, bad influence on children and loss of habitats to the local community. However, these adverse socio-cultural impacts of tourism can be mitigated by designing and implementing appropriate strategies and engaging the local communities along with the other stakeholders in the destination management programmes.

Table 3.1 displays the descriptive statistics on social sustainability indicators: preserve socio-cultural heritages, revive festivals and folklores, commercialisation of culture, cultural clashes, anti-social activities, loss of habitats, bad influence on children and good community behaviour.

The respondents have assigned lowest mean score (2.06) to Preserve Socio-cultural Heritages. The stakeholders believe that Delhi tourism does not ensure the protection and conservation of socio-cultural heritages including historical monuments, temples, mosques and churches and other religious places. Similarly, the respondents have also given an average score of 2.16 to Revive Festivals and Folklores under the perception that tourism does not promote and revives local festivals and folklores of the indigenous communities. The mean score of 3.20 on Commercialisation of Culture shows that the tourism development in Delhi is leading to excessive commercialisation of culture and traditions of the indigenous people. Likewise, the average score on Cultural Clashes (2.85) discloses that the mass tourism is not responsible for cultural clashes between the tourists and the local community.

The stakeholders have assigned a mean value of 3.05 to Anti-social Activities, which discloses that tourism development in Delhi is instrumental for increasing anti-social activities such as crimes, drug abuse, alcoholism, prostitution, gambling, etc. A low average score of Loss of Habitat (3.05) also explains that tourism development is leading to the loss of habitats to the indigenous community. However, the respondents have given an average score of 2.54 to Bad Influence on Children, which indicates that the tourism is not adversely affecting the attitude and behaviour of children and juveniles. Similarly, the mean score of Loss of identity and values (2.52) establishes that the tourism is not responsible for loss of identity and values of society.

Discussion of Descriptive Statistics:

We have used the descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation describes the perception of stakeholders about the sustainability of tourism development in different tourist destinations across Delhi. In this section, we will discuss the research findings from descriptive statistics and analyse whether the findings substantiate the empirical predictions that tourism development in Delhi is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.

Tourism Governance:

The descriptive statistics reveal that the tourism plans and programmes, the safety and security measures provided by the government and the efficiently and effectively planned and managed tourist destinations are positively contributing to sustainability of tourism in Delhi. The findings from descriptive statistics prove the empirical hypothesis that tourism governance measures are directly contributing to the sustainability of tourist destinations in Delhi.

Economic Sustainability:

Tourism contributes towards overall socio-economic development through the accelerated economic growth by generating employment, reducing mass poverty, improving standard of living of the local population. The findings on economic sustainability indicators from the descriptive statistics strongly reject the empirical hypothesis that tourism is directly contributing to the economic sustainability of tourist destinations in Delhi. However, the employment generation, poverty reduction, preference of tourists for locally made products and trained guides are not important economic variables that influence economic sustainability of Delhi.

Environmental Sustainability:

The descriptive statistics disclose that tourism is exerting huge pressure on the resources such as water, land, air, transportation and natural vegetation and wildlife. However, Delhi Government and tourism industry have established appropriate and efficient mechanism for water management, land utilisation, management of transport infrastructure, mitigating the air pollution and degradation of natural vegetation. Tourism is not responsible for generation of waste. However, appropriate mechanisms have been introduced for waste disposal and waste recycling. The government has failed to vigorously promoting and encouraging sustainable utilisation and conservation of conventional and non-conventional energy among the tourism business operators and the local communities. Besides, the government has also failed to provide environmental education and awareness to the local community, the business operators and the tourists.

The findings on environmental sustainability indicators from descriptive statistics substantiate the empirical hypothesis that tourism is directly contributing to the environmental sustainability of tourist destinations in Delhi. However, the tourism industry and the state government have to introduce more effective and efficient resource exploitation strategies keeping in mind the resource requirements of the future generations.

Socio-cultural Sustainability:

The descriptive statistics reveal that the tourism does not preserve socio-cultural heritages including historical monuments, temples, mosques, churches and other religious places. Similarly, tourism does not protect, revive, and promote festivals and folklores of the indigenous population. The stakeholders believe that tourism does not lead to commercialisation of culture and cultural clashes between the tourists and the local community. The findings also validate the general apprehensions that tourism is responsible for increasing the anti-social activities and loss of habitats to the local community. The findings also do not support the argument that tourism is adversely affecting the attitude and behaviour of the children and juveniles. The descriptive statistics on social sustainability reveals that Delhi tourism has brought about negative impacts on the society.

Factor Analysis:

The main objective of the research is to examine the sustainability of tourism development in Delhi and identifying the synergies between environmental, economic and socio-cultural sustainability in the development paradigm of Delhi by using factor analysis. The factor analysis is a data reduction method, which reduces a set of variables to a limited number of principal components, which underlines the correlation between the original variables. It explores and explains the magnitude and pattern of the correlation that exist within the set of observed values by identifying variables and factors that influence those values.

Data Structure Analysis:

The suitability of data for factor analysis is examined by applying Keiser-Myer-Olkin test and Bartlett Test of Sphericity. Keiser-Myer-Olkin test measures sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of Sphericity tests the data assumptions. In order to be suitable for factor analysis, a data set must have a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value between 0.5 and 1.0 and Bartlett’s test of Sphericity must be statistically significant at p<. 05.

Table 7.2 shows the results of sampling test and data assumption from Bartlett test of Sphericity and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO).

Table 4.1: KMO and Bartlett’s Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy	.690
Approx. Chi-Square	2194.44
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity D.F	630
Sig.	.000

Source: SPSS output from primary survey

From the table above Table 4.1 the Bartlett test of Sphericity is significant (Chi-square=2194.44, p<0.000). The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) overall measure of sampling is 0.690, which indicates that data are suitable for the principal component analysis. The values from Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measures above 0.60 is an adequate indicator for performing factor analysis.For examining the economic, environmental and socio-cultural sustainability of tourism destinations, we have used multidimensional statistical analysis, called factor analysis based on the principal component analysis (PCA). Table 7.3 and Figure 4.1 represent the results of factor analysis including the components, eigenvalues, and percentage of variance, cumulative variance, and communalities for 36 variables after performing factor analysis using Principal Component Analysis (PCA).

Table 4.2: Total Variance Explained

Components	Initial Eigenvalues		Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings
	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %	Total	% of Variance	Cumulative %
1	5.196	14.044	14.044	3.933	10.630	10.630
2	4.887	13.209	27.253	3.841	10.382	21.012
3	3.051	8.245	35.499	3.064	8.282	29.294
4	2.374	6.417	41.916	2.423	6.549	35.843
5	2.063	5.576	47.492	2.242	6.059	41.902
6	1.709	4.620	52.112	2.153	5.820	47.722
7	1.428	3.859	55.970	1.752	4.736	52.457
8	1.411	3.815	59.785	1.650	4.460	56.917
9	1.224	3.308	63.093	1.645	4.445	61.362
10	1.018	2.752	65.845	1.418	3.832	65.195

Source: SPSS output from primary survey

Table 4.3: Rotated Component Matrix

VARIABLE	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Mechanism to Reduce Noise Pollution	.909
Mechanism to Reduce Water Pollution	.855
Mechanism to Reduce Air Pollution	.848
Mechanism to Reduce Pressure on Transportation	.842
Mechanism to Reduce Degradation of Natural Vegetation	.689
Pressure on Land		.841
Pressure on Water		.831
Pressure on Transportation		.815
Pressure on Air		.814
Pressure on Natural Vegetation		.761
Increase Employment			.835
Revives Socio-cultural Heritages			.754
Improve Standard of Living			.704
Revives Local Festivals			.675
Preference to Local Products			.531
Promotes Environmental Education				.728
Promotion of Renewable Energy				.666
Management of Waste				.595
Local Community Contribution to Environmental Management				.566
Cultural Clashes and Acculturation					.791
Commercialization of Culture					.723
Loss of Identity and Values					.618
Safety and Security						.815
Efficient Legal System						.608
Tourism Plans						.506
Officials Behaviour							.770
Emergency Mechanism							.744
Trained Guides								.732
Tourists Follow Rules								.726
Behaviour of Local Community									.592
Bad Influence on Children										.742
Increases Anti-social Activities										.504

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalisation.

Rotation Converged in 10Iterations.

Source: SPSS output from primary survey

1 Resource Management:

The factor analysis suggest that the resource management is significant factor that contributes to the sustainability of tourism in Delhi.Mechanism to reduce Noise Pollution (.909), mechanism to reduce pressure on water (.855), mechanism to reduce Air Pollution (.848), mechanism to reduce Pressure on Transportation (.842) and mechanism to mitigate Degradation of Natural Vegetation (.689) are the important variables that explain the sustainability of Delhi tourism.

2. Pressure on Resources:

The second factor is termed as resource pressure includes the pressure on water, air, land, transportation, and natural vegetation and wild life. Although tourism development has brought huge benefits, the negative impacts of tourism such as scarcity of water, air pollution, misuse of land, traffic congestions have directly affected both the local communities and tourists. The high factor loadings on the such as the pressure on Land Resources (.841), Water Resources (.831), Transportation (.815) Air (.814) and Natural Vegetation (.761) in the factor analysis reveals that the resource utilisation in in Delhi is unsustainable and the negative impacts of tourism development is escalating and putting tremendous pressure on both manmade and natural resources.

3. Local Empowerment:

Local empowerment is another important factor, which ensures sustainability of Delhi tourism. The local empowerment is reinforced by the variables such as the Employment generation (.835), Revives Socio-cultural Heritages (.754), improve standard of living (.704), Revives local festivals (.675) and preference to locally made products (.531).The Government has identified tourism as an engine of socio-economic development and introduced various plans and programmes to eradicate poverty by strengthening economic relationship between the tourism industry and the local community for marketing the produce made by the local communities.

4. Environmental Management:

The environmental management is the fourth factor, which contributes to the sustainability of tourism in Delhi. The Environmental management is composed of the variables such aspromotes environmental education (.728), promotion of Renewable energy (.666), waste management (.595) and local community contribution to environmental management (.566).

5. Socio-cultural Unsustainability:

The Socio-cultural Unsustainabilityis the fifth factor that influences the sustainability of tourist destinations in Delhi. The socio-cultural unsustainability consists of the adverse impacts of tourism on the socio-cultural environment of Delhi such as Cultural clashes (.791), Commercialisation of Culture (.723), and Loss of Identity and Values (.618).

6. Tourism Governance:

Tourism Governance is another important factor that contributes to the sustainability of tourism in Delhi. The Safety and security (.815), Efficient legal system (.608), Tourism Plans (.506) are the governance mechanism which enhances sustainability of tourism in Delhi.The safety and security provided by the government at the tourist destinations, and meticulously formulated and implemented tourism plans and programmes are contributing to the sustainable tourism development.

7. Destination Management:

Destination management is next important factor, whichdraws millions of tourists from across the world. The destination management attributes such as positive attitude and friendly behaviour of officials towards tourists (.770) and Emergency Mechanism (.774)are instrumental in promoting tourism in Delhi sustainably.

8. Sustainable Tourism Promotion:

The sustainable tourism promotion is another important factor, which positively contributes to the sustainable tourism. The sustainable tourism promotion is composed of the attributes such as Trained Guides (.732), Tourists Follow Sustainable Tourism Practices (.726).

9. Local Community Participation:

The local community participation is an important factor in the sustainable destination management in Delhi. The local community behaviour and attitude (.592) determine the popularity of Delhi as a tourist destination. The destinations are characterised by the positive and encouraging support by the local people in the tourism development.

10. Anti-social Activities:

The factor analysis reveals that the antisocial activities are another major factor that influences the sustainability of tourism in Delhi. The variables such as Bad influence on children (.742) and Increase in anti-social activities (.504) have brought about adverse impact on the society of Delhi.

CONCLUSION:

The tourism industry is largest and rapidly growing segment of the Indian economy. Tourism industry contributes precious foreign exchange, generates employment, and helps infrastructure development and alleviation of poverty. However, the inconsiderate tourism development brings about disastrous implications on the economy, society, and environment of tourist destinations. Sustainable tourism has emerged as the most comprehensive approach to achieve sustainable development and mitigate the adverse impacts of tourism. In this research paper, Delhi has identified as a heritage tourism model, which represents Indian tourism for examining the sustainability of tourism in India.

The descriptive statistics precisely describe the perception of stakeholders about the sustainability of tourism development across Delhi. The research findings prove that the tourism development in Delhi is economically and environmentally sustainable. However, tourism is inflicting adverse impacts on social and cultural environment of Delhi. The state government and the tourism industry have to introduce and implement appropriate plans, programmes and strategies for mitigating the negative impacts of tourism on economy, environment and society of Delhi.The factor analysis identified eleven factors such as resource management, pressure on resources, local empowerment, environmental management, socio-cultural unsustainability, tourism governance, destination management, sustainable tourism promotion, local community participation and anti-social activities, which influence the sustainability of tourism development in Delhi.

The efficient destination management is a complex process that involves environmental, economic, social, political and institutional factors and requires the integration of all the stakeholders. The friendly attitude and behaviour of officials and adequately trained tourist guides, hygienic environment and efficient waste disposal management are other factors, which are being given priority by Delhi tourism. However, the high inflation and associated increased cost of living is a pressing problem faced by tourists and local community alike.

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Received on 07.01.2019 Modified on 20.01.2019

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2019; 10(2):635-645.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2019.00103.7