Sustainable Green Tourism Practices in Nainital: An Analytical Assessment of Existing Initiatives from Tourist and Stakeholder Perspectives

DOI: 10.22161/ijeab.116.2

Abstract:
Nainital, an oasis of lakes and hills, is a popular tourist destination in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand and the demand for tourists regularly puts a strain on its carrying capacity, especially during weekends and summer season. The present study examines the existing sustainable green tourism practices in Nainital from the perspective of its stakeholders. A 12-item Likert scale structured questionnaire was used and had 500 respondents which were selected using stratified sampling (250 tourists and 250 tourism stakeholders). Reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, one-sample t-test, independent-samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression were used to analyze the data in SPSS. It was found to have good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.873) and the instrument was found to have four factors. Existing practices were rated significantly higher than the neutral neutral score with environmental practices rated the highest and institutional and industry support rated the lowest (M = 3.55, SD = 0.61). The variance in overall effectiveness was accounted for by 41.6% through environmental practices, community and cultural initiatives and institutional support. Stakeholders were the most positive rating the practices and the older generation of 56 years and over were the most critical of the practices. The results suggest that the green efforts of Nainital are well received in general, but there is a lack of uniformity in their implementation; awareness and enforcement of green initiatives and participation of communities in the green movement are also in need of improvement.

Keywords:
sustainable tourism, green tourism practices, Nainital, Uttarakhand, hill destination, stakeholder perception, SPSS analysis

Article Info:
Received: 30 Sep 2026; Received in revised form: 20 Oct 2026; Accepted: 28 Oct 2026; Available online: 05 Nov 2026

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