ABSTRACT
Tourism has been described as the world’s largest and fastest growing industry. It is estimated by the World Tourism Organization that the industry will employ 250 million persons and promote over 10 per cent of total capital investment by 2010. Mountain tourism in its various forms will account for about 20 per cent of the total (WTTC 1999). Religious pilgrimage, drawing travellers to the sources of sacred rivers and the abodes of gods, has a long history in the Himalaya, and in some areas continues to have important economic and ecological impacts. Over the last half century, mountaineering, trekking, and mass tourism have developed dramatically in the Himalayan region. In some respects these newer forms are homologous with traditional pilgrimage; certainly the secular inspiration derived from recreation in high places is comparable to the spiritual inspiration associated with pilgrimage. There is an important difference, however: modern tourism in the Himalaya, unlike traditional pilgrimage, necessarily entails ‘development’, fundamental change in livelihoods and social structures of the impacted communities.
