An investigation of environmental impact of mountain tourism activities in the Hunza valley of Pakistan: a tourists’ perspective
Paper Details
An investigation of environmental impact of mountain tourism activities in the Hunza valley of Pakistan: a tourists’ perspective
Abstract
Environmental impact of tourism is a critical issue in the mountain regions around the world. This research aims to study the tourists’ perspective on the environmental pollution about mountain tourism activities in Hunza valley northern mountainous part of Pakistan. The data was collected by a set of questionnaires distributed among 300 foreign tourists, who visited Hunza. Descriptive statistics along with one-way ANOVA was performed to analyze and test the hypotheses. The research outcomes revealed that eco-tourists identified more pollution in terms of human waste and animal litter, sanitation, scattered rubbish, noise pollution and crowding than mountaineers, trekkers and general tourists visiting Hunza. Tourists staying for more than a week felt more pollution than those who stayed in Hunza for less than a week. Furthermore, research revealed that group of more than 6 persons identified more pollution than those travelled in a small travel party size. Results of statistical analysis indicated that there are statistically differences in tourist’s perception of environmental pollution in terms of tourist type, travel party size and length of stay during their sojourn in Hunza. Research concludes that mountaineers and trekkers directly get involved in adventure tourism and spend more days in the mountainous areas but they do not feel environmental impact as they can be part of this degradation some times. On the basis of results, researcher recommends to attract more eco-tourists in the Hunza valley because of their friendly nature towards the environment.
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Rehmat Karim, Adarsh Batra, Faqeer Muhammad, Rubina Shaheen, Shahina Perveen, 2014. An investigation of environmental impact of mountain tourism activities in the Hunza valley of Pakistan: a tourists’ perspective. J. Biodiv. Environ. Sci., 5(4), 601-609.
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