Linking Tourism, Local Environment and Waste Generation in Indian Himalayan States Using CGE Model: Case-Study of Uttarakhand

The study focuses on preparing a strategy for linking tourism, local environment and waste generation to find ideal policy instruments for effective waste management for states in Indian Himalayan Region (IHR).

To quantify the impact of rising tourist footfall on the state economy, a regional Input-Output (IO) table is being built focusing on the tourism sector which thereupon would be used as a base for construction of Social Accounting matrix (SAM) for the state of Uttarakhand. The bi-directionality between the amount of municipal solid waste generated and tourist footfall in the state is explored by development of a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model on the generated IO table. The project uses secondary research and primary data collection as part of its methodology to estimate state-level CGE parameters. Once all parameters of the model are estimated, various policy instruments would be tested to analyse their efficacy in managing solid waste generated in the region and understand their possible impacts on other economic parameters such as tourism revenue, employment etc.