Island Eco-Tourism: a Case Study of Andaman Islands, India

A pristine world of silver sands, clear blue seas, coral reefs, swaying palms, tropical forests, volcanic mountains and a gently undulating landscape is what the Andaman and Nicobar islands are all about. The islands comprising of 572 islands/islets, extend over an area of 8,249 km². Located between 6° 45" N and 13° 41" N latitudes and 92° 12" E and 93° 57" E longitudes, the islands offer exciting ecotourism products with natural and cultural settings. The present study dealt with tourism products, what attract tourists to the Andaman and Nicobar islands, preferences and choices among the touristic places and products. The scope of the present research work includes the assessment of positive and negative impacts of ecotourism in the Andaman's as perceived by the domestic and international tourists. It provides suggestions and recommendations on the basis of the analysis of field data on the tourist profiles, tourism products and tourism infrastructure. Furthermore, on the basis of the outcome of this research; the research has suggested to the tourism planners and administrators suitable proposals for the development of ecotourism in the Andaman's. More than 60% of the tourists have informed that they received information about the Andaman and Nicobar islands from their friends and relatives. The age composition of the tourists indicates that 57% of the tourists were in the age group of 31-50 years and 92% of the tourists were highly educated and none of the respondents in the sample was illiterate. The occupational structure of the tourists was found mixed, 70% of the total tourists comprised of technicians, government servants, private sector employees, students and teachers. Occupation wise, money spent by the tourists indicates that the government sector tourists earned a mean monthly income of about Rs. 28,000 and spent an average of Rs.72, 000 on their tour. Further, their sources of funding for the tour came from the leave travel concessions (LTC) schemes. According to the scores given by the visitors, for the natural tourism products, landscapes topped with 93.4% of the visitors, beaches with 90.5% and scenery with 88.9%, reserved forests with 86.8% and limestone caves with 68%. Similarly, the cultural and historical tourism products scored 82.2% for the natural history, historical sites 81.89% and museums 74.7% and heritage sites 72.4%. This clearly indicates that the Andaman has abundant natural beauty with a rich cultural heritage to become an ecotouristic destination.