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Inbound Tourism in Uttarakhand, India, before and after the 2013 Kedarnath Disaster – Evidence Derived from Social Networking Sites Using GIS


Affiliations
1 Forestry and Ecology Department, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, 4-Kalidas Road, Dehradun 248 001, India
 

Tourism is an important industry for the developing nations. The Indian Himalayan region attracts a multitude of tourists, but is highly prone to natural disasters that affect tourism. The 2013 Kedarnath disaster in Uttarakhand caused by the torrential downpour and subsequent flooding is one such example. In the present study, visitation rates were assessed with regard to the Kedarnath disaster using geo-tagged photographs posted on Flickr as proxy. Continued decrease in photo-user days from 2012 to 2014 was witnessed and the effectiveness of GIS in the spatio-temporal analysis of inbound tourism using big data available on social networking sites has been demonstrated.

Keywords

Big Data, Natural Disasters, Social Networking Sites, Tourism, Visitation Rates.
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  • Inbound Tourism in Uttarakhand, India, before and after the 2013 Kedarnath Disaster – Evidence Derived from Social Networking Sites Using GIS

Abstract Views: 247  |  PDF Views: 75

Authors

Stutee Gupta
Forestry and Ecology Department, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, 4-Kalidas Road, Dehradun 248 001, India
Shikha Anand
Forestry and Ecology Department, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, 4-Kalidas Road, Dehradun 248 001, India
Srishti Gwal
Forestry and Ecology Department, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, 4-Kalidas Road, Dehradun 248 001, India

Abstract


Tourism is an important industry for the developing nations. The Indian Himalayan region attracts a multitude of tourists, but is highly prone to natural disasters that affect tourism. The 2013 Kedarnath disaster in Uttarakhand caused by the torrential downpour and subsequent flooding is one such example. In the present study, visitation rates were assessed with regard to the Kedarnath disaster using geo-tagged photographs posted on Flickr as proxy. Continued decrease in photo-user days from 2012 to 2014 was witnessed and the effectiveness of GIS in the spatio-temporal analysis of inbound tourism using big data available on social networking sites has been demonstrated.

Keywords


Big Data, Natural Disasters, Social Networking Sites, Tourism, Visitation Rates.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv114%2Fi08%2F1755-1759