Abstract

The future of tourism lies in those destinations that conserve a clean environment and reflect natural beauty as the majority of foreign tourists appreciate cleanliness and want full value for their money spent, with no compromise with their health while on tour. Urban cleanliness occupies a top slot in the parameters of attractiveness of the cities for tourists. The cleanest cities in the world are generally termed the best tourist attractions. The “Clean India” Campaign, launched by the government, shows a direct association between tourism development & employment opportunities. 

In this paper, a theoretical framework is developed for achieving multiple SDG targets related to the removal of poverty, hunger, etc., and making all countries inclusive, safe, resilient, sustainable, and peaceful, and how these can be achieved through the promotion of tourism which can be developed through Cleanliness of cities and rural areas. In this paper a model has been proposed which suggests the achievement of these objectives through cleanliness in cities and tourist spots which – if attained and maintained – would lead to a substantial increase in domestic and foreign tourist traffic leading to the generation of substantial direct and indirect employment and income which, in turn, would lead to attaining SDG-Targets and SDG-16 for promoting peaceful and inclusive societies.

Data has been collected through a field survey in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) using the convenience sampling method. A usable sample of 216 respondents was found from the 266 questionnaires that were received. The disgust level of respondents on seeing garbage/filth at different locations was assessed using a 5-point scale. Findings reveal that garbage is highly and almost equally disgusting at all places and to all people irrespective of their age, education, and income level. Qualitative analysis reveals that foreign tourists value ‘cleanliness’ the most in their decision on foreign travel, followed by safety & security, quality of hotels, behavior of locals, shopping experience, and service by local transport providers.

Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals, tourism development, cleanliness dimension, travel and tourism competitive exam.

1. Introduction

1.1 Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Organization (UNO or UN) has initiated several major programs during the past decades. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda adopted in 2015 by the 193 member countries can be considered as the most important initiative to achieve the sustainability goals by 2030. The historic agenda laid out 17 SDGs and 169 SDG targets for the achievement of dignity, peace, and prosperity for the planet and humankind. To achieve utopian cordial poverty-free living conditions on Mother Earth, multiple areas for action have been proposed that plan to build up local economies while addressing people's social needs. Before setting 17 SDGs, eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were set in the year 2000 for achievement by 2015 which were meant to lift nearly one billion people out of extreme poverty, combat hunger, and allow more girls to attend school. The MDGs, specifically goal seven, helped to protect the planet by practically eliminating global consumption of ozone-depleting substances, planting trees to offset the loss of forests, and increasing the percentage of total land and coastal marine areas worldwide. This major sustainability goal has been carried forward more vigorously due to its essentiality for the long-term survival of mankind on Earth. The sustainability aspect has also been differently included in several SDGs. The 17 SDGs are presented in Table 1.

All SDGs are very important and have a significant bearing on the future. Implementation of the action plan for achieving SDGs – a result of the 2012 Rio+20 Earth Summit – was estimated to cost over $4 trillion each year. Unlike the MDGs, which relied exclusively on funding from governments and non-profit organizations, the SDGs have also relied on private sector contributions.

Although some progress has been made towards achieving the 17 sustainability goals, the speed of work is not considered enough to meet the 2030 deadline. According to the UN SDGs Report (2018): 9.2 percent of the world's workers who live with family members made less than $1.90 per person per day in 2017, representing less than a 1 percent improvement from 2015

· There has been a rise in world hunger in different years; over 800 million people were undernourished worldwide in 2016, which is up from 777 million people in 2015.

· There is a lack of progress in gender equality; based on the SDG gender index, no country is on track to achieve gender equality by 2030.

· On a scale of zero to 100 – indicating a score of 90+ as excellent progress in achieving the goals and 59 or less as poor headway – Denmark topped the list of 129 countries with about 90 scores. The majority of the top 20 countries with a good ranking were European countries, while sub-Saharan Africa had some of the lowest-ranking countries. The overall average score of all countries was found to be a poor score of 65.7.

Table 1: Sustainable Development Goals

For 21 out of the 169 SDG targets set for achieving SDGs, 2020 was marked as the deadline. Although the latest figures of the estimates of progress are not yet available, the Covid pandemic is believed to have greatly impacted the progress adversely.

1.2 Tourism Development

Tourist attractions, good hotels, transport, roads, markets, traffic discipline, availability of multi-lingual tourist guides, ‘no beggar-nuisance’, cleanliness, etc. attract wealthy tourists, and that too with their re-visits. Urban cleanliness occupies a top slot in the parameters of attractiveness of the cities. The cleanest cities in the world are generally termed the best tourist attractions where international tourists spend lavishly. Most countries attempt to develop places of attraction to international tourists such as Las Vegas, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangkok, several exotic beaches, etc. Sustainable tourism could be ensured based on cleanliness and other prerequisites of tourist attraction and the tourism industry in India can create so much employment and income leading to the establishment of a peaceful and inclusive society in India to achieve the 16th SDG. This important aspect has also been studied by several researchers in the past. 

Tourism is a multidimensional sector that encompasses various aspects like nature, environment, economy, society, culture, landscape, cities-villages, physical environment, ease of communication systems, regional-urban infrastructures, economic activities, etc. which make a tourist destination attractive with more visitors’ inflow (Raun et al., 2016). The association between the proportion of the population utilizing better sanitation facilities and the number of tourist arrivals is significant. Poor sanitation facilities have been reflected to have a high negative impact on public health and the economy. For sustainable tourism, proper investment is required to improve sanitation facilities which is an essential aspect of the economic growth of a country (Elysia, 2020).

The “Clean India” Campaign, launched by the government, shows a direct association between tourism development & employment opportunities. The Clean India campaign (2014-19) of the Govt. of India has been found to bear a significant positive impact on the inflow of tourists, revenue generation, and increasing employment opportunities because of the perceived value of tourists towards improved sanitation, safety, accessibility, and government norms to protect and preserve monuments (Vijayvargiya, 2017). The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked India 34 on the Travel and Tourism Competitive Index (TTCI) in 2019. However, this rank was revised to 46 with the change in measurement system from TTCI to Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI). Surprisingly, India’s TTDI rank has deteriorated to 54 in 2021 (WEF, 2022). This rank can be substantially improved with due focus on urban cleanliness drive – similar to the open-defecation-free Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Cleanliness Movement) focussed towards rural India. 

Tourists are attracted to the urban areas based on the infrastructure quality of urban destinations such as the quality-service-location of hotels which satisfies the tourists (Crouch, 2011; Ashworth & Page, 2011; Shahraki, 2018; Latinopoulos, 2020). Cultural heritage and history of a destination like significant museums, monuments, environmental sustainability, etc. (Ashworth & Page, 2011; Gil & Ritchie, 2008; Campa et al., 2019); good transportation system (Rigall-I-Torrent, 2008; Boivin & Tanguay, 2018; Romão & Bi, 2021). According to an estimation, the tourism industry supports the creation of about 42 million jobs, which is approximately more than 8.5% of the country’s total employment in India. It is expected that by 2028, the tourism industry will have an annual growth rate of 6.9%, contributing to 9.9% of the country’s GDP (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2018). The healthy growth of the Indian economy is expected to be attributed to the tourism sector. (Parsa et al., 2020).

Cleanliness is one of the most important influencing factors of tourist destinations in the case of the selection of beaches especially by the tourists from developed countries. In a survey, most of the respondents from the Cape Metropolitan Region were reported to readily spend seven times more than the average cost of other trips to visit clean beaches; up to 97% of the value of these beaches could be lost in case of shortfall in standards of cleanliness; 40 percent of tourists expected to be deterred in case of increase in litter density at beaches. In the survey, foreign tourists ranked cleanliness higher than domestic tourists (Ballancea et al., 2020). 

The future of tourism lies in those destinations that conserve a clean environment and reflect natural beauty as the majority of foreign tourists appreciate cleanliness and want full value for their money spent, with no compromise with their health while on tour. In India, the government spends crores of rupees on anti-littering campaigns, but people don’t stop throwing garbage because of a lack of civic sense, disregard for public places, unavailability of waste bins, and the absence of hefty fines to deter people. Foreign tourists appreciate monuments in India which are now targeted by environmental degradation (Kumar & Sajnani, 2017). The literature review has revealed the importance of urban cleanliness – through tourism and associated income and employment generation – for achieving the targets of SDG-16. 

2. Objective and Theoretical Framework

The SDG-16 refers to “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions” which is intended to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels. In this paper, a theoretical framework is developed for achieving multiple SDG targets related to the removal of poverty, hunger, etc., and making all countries inclusive, safe, resilient, sustainable, and peaceful, and how these can be achieved through the promotion of tourism which can be developed through Cleanliness of cities and rural areas. The key objectives of all economies are full employment, high economic growth rate, low unevenness in the distribution of income, economic stability, and external trade balance or matching balance of payments. The model proposed here suggests the achievement of these objectives through cleanliness in cities and tourist spots which if attained and maintained would lead to a substantial increase in domestic and foreign tourist traffic leading to the generation of substantial direct and indirect employment and income which, in turn, would lead to attaining SDG-Targets and SDG-16 for promoting peaceful and inclusive societies. This theoretical framework and model have been presented in Exhibits 1 and 2.

Figure 1: Model for enhancing Tourist Traffic

Figure 2: Model for enabling Local Self-Government, enhancing Tourism and achievement of SDG-16

3. Research Methodology

The present empirical study is based on primary data collected through a field survey in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) using the convenience sampling method. With the target of 500 respondents, a usable sample of 216 respondents was found from the 266 questionnaires that were received. The sample profile is presented in Tables 2 to 4.

Table 2: Sample Profile of Household Respondents by Their Age

Table 3: Sample Profile of Household Respondents by Their Education

Table 4: Sample Profile of Household Respondents by Their Income

4. Survey Findings and Analysis

An important component in tourism promotion and tourist attractiveness is cleanliness, which is highly impacted by littering and filth in the markets, roads, tourist spots, etc. It is important to find out the extent to which citizens and residents feel disgusted while seeing filth and garbage at different locations. From a policy perspective, it is important to analyze the differential disgust level among local respondents as per their age, education, and income. Tables 5 to 8 present a statistical analysis of the sample data of 216 respondents showing their disgust level on a 5-point scale on seeing garbage/filth at different locations. Table 5 reveals that all respondents feel highly disgusted on seeing filth as the mean score is more than 3.5 for all locations; the highest being 4.02 when they consider seeing filth at the Railway Station most disgusting. 

Tables 6 to 8 broadly reveal that garbage is highly and almost equally disgusting at all places and to all people irrespective of their age, education, and income level – with a mean disgust level of 3.86 (on a 5-point scale). The F-test reveals that disgust level is statistically not significantly different between various demographic segments of sample respondents at almost all locations. However, the analysis of the mean disgust level of different segments indicates that younger respondents feel more disgusted than their elder counterparts while seeing filth at most of the locations. Quite expected, the disgust level is growing with education level as well as income level. 

Table 5: Mean and Standard Deviation of Disgust Level (on a 5-Point Scale) of

Table 6: Age-wise Mean and Standard Deviation of Disgust Level (on 5-Point Scale) of All Respondents on Seeing Garbage/Filth at Different Locations (One Way ANOVA)

Table 7: Education-wise Mean and Standard Deviation of Disgust Level (on 5-Point Scale) of All Respondents on Seeing Garbage/Filth at Different Locations (One Way ANOVA)

Table 8: Income-wise Mean and Standard Deviation of Disgust Level (on 5-Point Scale) of All Respondents on Seeing Garbage/Filth at Different Locations (One Way ANOVA)

Qualitative analysis of the survey of foreign tourists reveals that they value ‘cleanliness’ the most in their decision on foreign travel, followed by safety & security, quality of hotels, behavior of locals, shopping experience, and service by local transport providers. Thus, if the urban areas of tourists’ stay, places of tourist attractions, markets, etc. are kept clean, then the tourist inflow can increase phenomenally, resulting in substantial growth in employment and income of all segments of the population and thereby in the removal of poverty. This will lead to the promotion of peace and inclusiveness in the society. 

5. Conclusion

The theoretical framework developed and presented in this research study followed by the findings of the field survey reveals that garbage and filth are disgusting to see by all sample respondents and effective action by the local self-governments, municipal corporations, etc. can help the achievement of urban as well as rural cleanliness in India. Such an initiative will make all tourist spots, markets, roads, railway stations, bus stations, etc. very clean places which will attract more foreign as well as domestic tourists. This will result in substantially more employment and income, which will lead to a peaceful and inclusive society in India. Similar initiatives in all countries will result in more international and domestic tourism across the world leading to high income and employment generation with a multiplier effect, removal of poverty, and worldwide peace and inclusive society, i.e. the achievement of SDG-16. Other issues that also require needful action and attention in all countries are addressing safety issues of the tourists. 

Acknowledgment

Authors gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India (IMPRESS Scheme operated by ICSSR, GoI) for a larger study on Urban Cleanliness.

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