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Key Issues in Visitor Experience and Tourism Development - A Study of Varanasi Dr. P.V. Rajeev* and P.J. Shyju** Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Tourism is one of the top priorities for many countries, because of its contribution to economy in terms of foreign exchange earnings, creation of employment opportunities, promoting international understanding, etc. As the importance of tourism increases day by day, allocation of funds for tourism development has gone up and it has resulted in different ways such as emphasis on infrastructure development and streamlining tourism activities. National Tourism Authorities (NTA) of different countries has a greater role to coordinate tourism development and at the same time they are also responsible for conducting proper evaluation. NTAs have added pressure to carry out developments more systematically and evaluate tourism activities time to time, as the investment of public funds can be fully justified (WTO 94). Here the role of different stake holders cant be ignored. This means that NTAs as well as the stakeholders of tourism have equal responsibility in terms of a destinations development, and management of tourism resources (Faulkner 2006). Indian Scenario Global changes in tourism development have influenced Indian Tourism sector. Continuous efforts of the Government authorities (central and state government), and leading players in the industry have resulted in an upward trend in the international tourist arrivals. Tourism occupies third position in terms of foreign exchange earnings. The Indian Tourism Industry forecast (2007-2011) report provides an objective analysis of the performance of tourism sector at present and future prospects. The report says that Inbound tourist expenditure is the third highest in the world, which is more than the global average. Disposable income during the period (2001-2006) has grown at a CAGR of 10.11%, thereby driving domestic as well as outbound tourism. Tourist inflow to India is expected to increase at a CAGR of 22.65% between 2007-2011 Indias share in Global Tourism is expected to reach by 1.5% by 2010. India is the fifth most attractive destination in terms of investment opportunities. (IL &FS, 2007). In South Asia, India accounts for 65.8 % of the regional tourism receipts. Direct contribution to the GDP is 2 % whereas the overall contribution of tourism sector is 5.3 %. Various steps taken by government of India during the period 1998-2006, have opened the Indian tourism sector to the world. Marketing campaigns by India Tourism, placed India as one of the top ten destinations (Visit India Year (1998-2000), Incredible India, Athithi Devo Bhava, etc.) (Conde Nast Traveller). Several shortcomings come in the way of development, which act as major obstacles in development. The underlying fact is that management of India as a tourism destination has not reached in tune with the requirements, as there are problems such as regional linkages, connectivity, basic civic infrastructure, tourist amenities, service delivery and institutional regulatory issues (IL & FS, 2007). Destination management, the major concern WTO defines local tourism destination as A physical space that includes tourism products such as support services, and attractions and tourism resources. It has physical and administrative boundaries, defining its management and perceptions defining its market competitiveness. Local destinations include various stake holders, often including host community and can nest and network to form larger destinations. They are the focal point in the delivery of tourism products and the implementation of tourism policy (WTO, 2002). Destination management is one of the major concerns of any country. This consists of studying the nature of the destination, resources available, hosts, the visitors behaviour and management of tourism resources. The potential of learning organisation approach for improving the sustainability of tourism destination will help the management of tourist destinations. (Schiantez. K and Kavanagh. L. 2007). Saxena (2005) conceptualised tourism destinations as Learning Regions, a concept fostered by OECD (2001). These shows How tourism destinations function How market possibilities can be enhanced
*Sr. Lecturer, Faculty of Management Studies, BHU, Varanasi **Lecturer in Tourism, Faculty of Arts, BHU

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Requirements of adaptation to changing environment Promote collective awareness of eventual economics social, environmental risks and impacts. How risks can be minimised and countered.

Learning Community

Learning Organisation

Learning Individuals

Learning Tourism Destinations (Source: (Schiantez. K and Kavanagh. L. 2007) Varanasi The Living Ancient City of India. Varanasi is a holy city in Hinduism, and treated with great reverence and religious attachment. The holy shrines of Lord Shiva, the holy river of Ganga, centre of Indian Philosophy etc. are key features which draw lakhs of pilgrims to this city. According to Vamana Purana, the Varuna and Assi Rivers originated from the body of the primordial person at the beginning of time itself. Though, claimed to be one of the ancient cities in India, the archaeological findings dates back to 800 B.C. (Singh, Rana and Pravin, 2002). The present city has grown in 18 century A.D. During the course of time Varanasi has become a centre of learning, music, and philosophy. Its historic affiliation and importance as religion and philosophy, the city witnessed several changes. Main attractions: More than 84 Ghats stretch along the banks of River Ganges. More than 20 very important temples Old Shrines and monasteries of Jain and Buddhists. The Panchkroshi route connecting important temples, and Tanks (Kunds) The birth places of Saint Kabir Das, and Queen Laxmi Bhai. Sarnath, the stupa and Buddhist monasteries. Educational institutions. Literature Review Several researchers have conducted studies on the relationship between tourism planning development, visitor satisfaction, host perception (Kintnuntaviwat. V, 2008) psychology of tourist experience (Larsen, 2007). According to T. D. Anderson (2007) the value of an experience is deciding upon the situation. The experiences of tourists will definitely have an impact on tourism demand that influence the tourist destination in a number of ways. A number of researchers have also conducted studies on first time visitors and repeated visitors. Many studies were coined around the demographics, destination perception, and previous experiences (Lee, Cheng, et.al, 2007). The findings gives insights on experiences of first time and repeated visitors, but how it influences the policy makers are not mentioned. According to Gross and Brown (2006) place attachment features in the decision making process of tourism consumption. Pearce. L (2006) explains the onsite behaviour of tourists and how it reflects in satisfaction. Other than mentioning the decision making process and tourism consumption plan, this study didnt give any insights on how crucial is tourist experience in destination development. Though all researches were aimed to understand the visitor satisfaction and visitor experience, an attempt to identify the relationship between development of destination and tourists experience are a few. In the light of the above, and, Varanasi being a major tourist destination, the present paper focuses on the sustainability of Varanasi as a tourist destination, based on various factors like expectations, experiences and satisfaction of tourists. Methodology The present study was undertaken to study the following aspects:
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To understand the experiences of tourists in Varanasi To study tourists opinion on local tour operators, guides, hotels and restaurants. To give insights on the immediate requirements to develop Varanasi as a destination The study is done by collecting relevant information from secondary data sources, which include books, journals and reports published by government of India, Government of Uttar Pradesh. A structured questionnaire has been designed and distributed among the foreign tourists. The sample size is 126 and the study has been conducted in the month of February and March 2008. A feedback study from tour operators were also taken in to consideration to compare the data analysed. Data analysis is done by factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), t test and descriptive statistics. Results The first part of the study is the profile of visitors which includes gender, age and marital status. The study was conducted among the visitors on a random basis. Among the respondents the male, female ratio was 31:69 percentages. The majority of respondents were singles. The pie diagram below shows the age group of respondents.

33.3% of the respondents are of the age group of 15- 24. 42.9 % of visitors come in the age bracket of 2534. The share of 35-44 age groups is 2.4 %, where the 45-54 consist of 14.3%. People in the age group of 55-64 consist of 2.4 % and remaining 4.8 % consist of people with an age of 60 or above. Purpose of visiting Varanasi includes casual visits, sightseeing and to experience the importance of Varanasi in terms of culture and religion, learning, and for few it is a part of visit to Sarnath. There is a clear difference in backpackers and GITs (Group Inclusive Tour). The average length of stay for backpackers is approximately 5-7 days whereas for GITs its two three days. It is interesting to note that tourists stay here for longer duration in order to learn Indian dances, music, and Sanskrit, and Hindi. Yoga and Meditation are two important areas, where foreign tourists give much attention. 80 % of tourists prefer to visit Varanasi again which shows that as a tourist attraction Varanasi has proven its competence among other prominent destinations of India. The Ghats, River Ganges, and Life style and people are the major factors which draw foreign tourists to Varanasi. A negative side of tourists behaviour is, some tourists perceive that Varanasi is a place to get drugs and consciously or unconsciously involve in drugs consumption and its business. The mode of conveyance used by tourists is mainly train. 55 % of tourists preferred train, 35 % preferred flight and Varanasi 10% visitors use cars to reach. The main points of arrivals are from Delhi, Agra, Gaya, Allahabad, Kolkata and Lucknow. The results of analysis of variance and t- test indicate that there is dissatisfaction with various services provided by local tour operators and local tourist guides. Further tests disclose that apart from tour operators and local guide services, tourists have strong apprehensions regarding room service, availability of tourist information, room service, cleanliness, and crowd management. It was also noted that the tourists have maximum difference of opinion on tourist guides, local tour operators and service at restaurants etc. The following factors indicate the opinion of tourists on priority areas, to develop Banaras as a destination. The opinions mentioned below on ranking basis. 1. Improvement of infrastructure
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2. High priority for cleanliness 3. Safety of tourists. 4. Awareness programme on tourism 5. Need of tourists friendliness in Varanasi. Among the various attributes taken for the study, the responses are identified and grouped as seven factors. Mode of transport, (by train) i.e., trains connectivity, service by ticket conductor and services by pantry car. The second factor is services at the destination which include local service of tour operators, local tourist guides and room service in hotel. The third factor is essential requirements like crowd management and safety. The fourth factor identified here is area of local importance such as infrastructure and local conveyance. Fifth factor consists of restaurants, which include availability of good restaurants, and quality of food. Service by tourism department of Varanasi is another factor where tourist information centres and assistance by tourist police are assessed. Service by different carriers is identified as the seventh factor. In this, service by airline authorities at airport, and during the flight has been included. The responses have given a weight age of 22.28% for the first factor followed by 15.92% for the second factor and 10.61% for the third factor. Local tour operators opine that, Ganges has become a drain, which carries sewage and pollutants throughout its course. Cities located on the banks of River Ganga such as Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, etc. create immense pressure for water requirements. One way water is lifted from the river for supply, and on the other side industrial pollution, sewage from cities kill the life line of the Holy Ganges. Though steps were taken to ensure the cleanliness of the Ghats, temples and the inner part of city, spillage of sewage lines and litter create lot of health issues. In rainy season water stagnates in the main roads and narrow lanes which further act as a den of diseases. Concluding Observations India, being considered as the most favoured tourist destination of the future, needs a lot of focus on managing its resources and requires a close attention on various issues. The need of the hour is to make heavy investments on various issues that govern the growth of tourist arrivals, to provide a keepsake visitor experience, in order to make their stay a memorable one and encourage repeat visit. The present study has identified various issues that have to be encountered, in order to make the visitors have a pleasant stay. It seeks to improve the image of Varanasi as a better tourist destination. It is found that majority of the tourists are women and around 76% of them are in the age group of 15-35, tourist safety is becoming a concern these days. Though Varanasi is a tourist friendly city, issues concerning the safety of tourists and their belongings are becoming a topic of discussion. The definition of tourist safety is broad as term means a condition free of cheating, fraudulence, misguiding, more serious issues like, stealing, harassing physically attempts of looting belongings etc. have to be carefully addressed. Different governments have warned tourists about insecurity in India and take precautions to avoid any unpleasant incidents. Improvement of infrastructure is a very serious concern. Existing facilities are insufficient to meet the growing demands of local people and tourists. The narrow galley which connects different Ghats and important places of Varanasi is the life line of the city. Improvement of infrastructure and tourist safety is a very serious concern that is growing as the days pass. The respondents were also of the opinion that the existing facilities are insufficient to meet the growing demands. Moreover, the perception of some of the tourists in seeing Varanasi as a centre for transacting in drugs has added complexity to this problem. The relations with the local populace get strained many a times on account of this. Repeatedly incidents are taking place in the city where the foreign visitors abnormally behave or create problem to local people, after consuming intoxicated items. There is a need to maintain stringent measures to curb drug trade and usage of drugs by both state and central governments. Service provided by local tour operators, local guides, room service, availability of tourist information room service, cleanliness, and crowd management were found to require more attention as these are the areas which the tourists felt that it was inadequately managed. The next key issue is to create awareness on the impact of tourism on the local community, as this would induce a cohesive environment among the visitors and local people, where the local community as well as
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the visitors know their responsibilities. In a destination, there are many occasions tourists directly contact local people. The economic impact of tourism in Varanasi is highly visible during the off and peak seasons. People work in unorganised sector which is the most vulnerable section, where the off season directly hit their livelihood. Any tourism development programme will be successful only when the involvement of local community is ensured. Hence, for tourism to get a big stride in a traditional city like Varanasi it is required that an awareness programme for the local community is conducted, highlighting the benefits and opportunities of tourism in store, if they are able to provide a clean and safe stay to the visitors. References
Faulkner. B, (2006), A Model for the Evaluation of National Tourism Destination Marketing Programme, in Progressing Tourism Research, Ed. Cooper.C, Jago. L et. al) Gross, Michael J. and, Brown Graham, (2006), Tourism experiences in a lifestyle destination setting: The roles of involvement and place attachment, Journal of Business Research 59, 696700 John S. Akama, Damiannah Mukethe Kieti, (2003) Measuring tourist satisfaction with Kenyas wildlife safari: a case study of Tsavo West National Park, Tourism Management 24 (2003) 7381 Larsen. Svein, (2007) Aspects of a psychology of the Tourist Experience, Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, Vol. 7, No. 1, 718, 2007 Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. (1990). Delivering Quality Service. New York: Free Press. Pearce, Philip, (2006), Tourist Behaviour Themes and conceptual schemes, Viva Books, New Delhi Tommy d. Andersson (2007), The Tourist in the Experience Economy, Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, Vol. 7, No. 1, 4658, Virut kitnuntaviwat and John c. S. Tang (2008), Residents Attitudes, Perception and Support for Sustainable Tourism Development, Tourism and Hospitality Planning & Development, Vol. 5, No. 1, 4560 WTO, (1994), Budget of National Tourism Administrations, Madrid: WTO Xiang (Robert) Li, Chia-Kuen Cheng, Hyounggon Kim, James F. Petrick, (2007), A systematic comparison of firsttime and repeat visitors via a two-phase online survey, Tourism Management, Elsevier

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APPENDIX
Table No. 1. (ANOVA Test) Train connectivity Assistance by T.C. Service by Pantry car staff Service by Airline In-flight Service Service by Local Tour Operators Local Guide Service Between Groups Between Groups Between Groups Between Groups Between Groups Between Groups Between Groups Table No. 2. (T test) Test Value = 0 Mean Difference 95% Confidence interval of the Difference Lower Upper 2.17 1.84 2.49 .76 .41 1.11 .62 .34 .89 1.43 1.06 1.79 1.67 1.23 2.10 1.76 1.24 2.28 2.45 1.80 3.10 3.07 2.40 3.74 3.43 2.91 3.94 2.31 1.94 2.68 2.29 1.91 2.66 2.02 1.66 2.38 2.83 2.46 3.20 3.00 2.66 3.34 3.62 3.34 3.89 2.50 2.21 2.79 2.40 2.00 2.81 1.48 1.27 1.69 F 28.644 23.484 8.198 18.686 33.046 1.791 1.211 Sig. .000 .000 .001 .000 .000 .180 .309

Local Conveyance Services by airline at airport In flight services Connectivity (train) Assistance by T.C Service by pantry car staff Service by local tour operators Tour guides Room service Service at the restaurant Quality of food Sight seeing Infrastructure Crowd management Cleanliness Safety Local assistance by police Attraction

Table No. 3 (Descriptive statistics) Connectivity Service by airline at airport In flight service TRACONNE Assistance by T.C. Service by pantry car staff Service by local tour operators Tourist guides Room service Service at restaurant Quality of food Tourist information office Local Sight seeing Restaurant ambience Infrastructure Crowd management Cleanliness Safety Local conveyance Assistance by Police Attraction Mean 2.17 .76 .62 1.43 1.67 1.76 2.45 3.07 3.43 2.31 2.29 3.76 2.02 2.69 2.83 3.00 3.62 2.50 2.40 2.52 1.48 Std. Deviation 1.034 1.122 .882 1.172 1.391 1.665 2.086 2.146 1.655 1.199 1.215 1.679 1.158 1.370 1.188 1.082 .882 .944 1.289 .969 .671
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Component

Table No. 4 (Eigen Values) Initial Eigen values % of Variance Total 4.679 3.344 2.228 1.775 1.715 1.189 1.063 .825 .742 .604 .521 .409 .391 .362 .301 .246 .229 .131 .117 7.888E-02 4.895E-02 22.283 15.924 10.609 8.454 8.167 5.660 5.060 3.931 3.533 2.874 2.481 1.950 1.862 1.723 1.436 1.173 1.091 .625 .556 .376 .233

Cumulative % 22.283 38.207 48.816 57.270 65.437 71.097 76.158 80.089 83.622 86.496 88.977 90.926 92.788 94.511 95.947 97.119 98.211 98.835 99.391 99.767 100.000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Table No. 4 (Factor Analysis) Component loadings

Conveyance Service by airline In-flight service Train connectivity Service by T.C Pantry car Local tour operators Guide service Room service Restaurant ambience Quality of food Tourist information Place of stay Infrastructure Crowd Management Cleanliness Safety Asst. by local police Local conveyance

1 -0.817 0.803 0.773 -0.771 -0.648 -0.537 0.551 0.495 0.531 -0.006 -0.145 0.317 0.253 -0.082 0.102 0.402 0.304 -0.185 0.126

2 0.339 -0.019 0.034 0.445 0.452 0.436 0.584 0.594 0.296 0.486 0.670 0.085 0.401 0.225 0.746 0.383 0.325 -0.002 0.197

3 -0.015 0.283 0.310 0.135 0.018 0.196 -0.288 -0.340 -0.422 -0.222 -0.224 -0.189 0.585 -0.238 0.211 0.014 0.428 0.493 0.682

4 0.149 -0.161 -0.151 0.110 -0.250 -0.127 0.152 0.307 0.185 0.118 -0.012 0.541 -0.211 -0.642 0.041 -0.374 -0.227 0.598 0.339

5 0.121 0.044 -0.045 0.116 0.301 0.382 0.273 0.245 0.300 -0.751 -0.551 0.095 0.089 -0.079 -0.128 0.215 -0.122 0.037 -0.131

6 -0.058 0.032 0.116 -0.062 0.210 0.156 -0.084 0.055 0.202 -0.031 0.221 -0.418 -0.371 -0.545 -0.133 0.082 0.029 -0.340 0.352

7 -0.110 0.294 0.390 0.106 0.078 0.373 0.084 -0.001 -0.222 0.138 0.099 0.169 -0.096 0.228 -0.222 -0.108 -0.575 0.007 0.178

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