ECOTOURISM AND HEALTH TOURISM : PERSPECTIVE OF MAJOR SOLUTION TO CORONA PANDEMIC

ECOTOURISM AND HEALTH TOURISM : PERSPECTIVE OF MAJOR SOLUTION TO CORONA PANDEMIC

Photo by: Author, Diu, India

Chiranjib Kumar (PhD)*, Gambella University Ethiopia

*Chiranjib_kumar@hotmail.com

Article -DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15731.66089

ABSTRACT

Health is wealth. And to live a healthy life, the immune system of the body should be perfect. Good immunity not only brings mental happiness but also it supports the process of positive thinking. The present paper tried to highlight the importance of ecotourism and health tourism in perspective of major solution to Corona pandemic. Tourism is for experiencing change through leisure, pleasure, entertainment, recreation or by taking any other activities. But not all types of tourism could help in decreasing stress and increasing immunity. The article is based on opinion of researcher and his personal experience that he gained while traveling through various destination and interacting with tourists during Corona pandemic. It also include secondary data collected from online. The inference was drawn on the basis of focus group discussion and observation. Ecotourism and health tourism could be viewed as an opportunity to deal with Corona(covid19) pandemic which will further help in speedy tourism recovery.


Keywords: Corona(covid19), Ecotourism, Health Tourism, Immunity, organic food, Recovery


INTRODUCTION

Corona pandemic has diverted the mind of a large number of healthy population of the world. The Covid19 virus has generated a very stressful atmosphere in different parts of the world particularly among infected patients and their family members. The exclusive name like “Corona warrior” has tried well to divert the mind of the health service providers and recipients. But again such type of names could not be considered as a long term solutions for such a big disasters and health hazards. The world is looking for some rigid solution for the pandemic and that solution could come only through good health, healthy mind and eco-friendly atmosphere. Ecotourism and health tourism could help in fighting against Corona(Covid19) like pandemic, as it provides opportunities to improve physical and mental health conditions in natural settings. 

Enjoying peace of mind through nature connection, cultural appreciations and biodiversity conservation are the primary goals of any Ecotourism activity. And getting various types of learning experiences and community services are the secondary goals which motivates people to take responsibility and become responsible towards life, health and nature in holistic way to achieve the sustainable development goals. Health tourism has tremendous potential to tap  untapped emerging tendency of tourists in the aftermath of fall due to Corona pandemic.  Organic food and farm could become the part of health tourism programme.

The perspective of north Cork farmer Thomas Fouhy, from Ireland was positive in regard to organic food farming and farm tourism. According to him “The positive side of Covid-19 has been that people are thinking about what they are eating and want to see where their food originates. They are also enjoying nature,” Thomas said. 

Consumer demand for organically produced goods continues to show double-digit growth, providing market incentives for U.S. farmers across a broad range of products. Organic sales account for over 4 percent of total U.S. food sales, according to recent industry statistics. Consumers prefer organically produced food because of their concerns regarding health, the environment, and animal welfare, and they show a willingness to pay the price premiums established in the marketplace (USDA-ERS’ 2020). According to Laura , who  is a San Francisco-based freelance writer specializing in food, drink, and travel, “with U.S. tourists currently barred from visits to the European Union and states slowly beginning to reemerge from lockdown, residents across the country are looking for travel experiences much closer to home “. This includes agritourism, in which working farms, ranches, orchards and other agricultural properties offer hands-on activities and other visitor incentives to supplement business.

Most of countries now started realizing the fact that “lockdown” could not be the solution of global problem like corona(covid19). Ecotourism and health tourism has been emerged as an important opportunity for service providers which will further help in fast recovery of tourism sectors and people too from the pandemic. 

Key Questions

Q. How to achieve the emerging demand of these transformed tourists/visitors/travellers?

Q. What are the different ways to grab the opportunities which has emerged due to Corona pandemic?

Significance

The study has significance as it will rise the tourism industry by providing new dimension of tourism practices. It would also try to establish a proper linkage in between health, hospitality and tourism sectors.

DATA BASE

Respondents were selected randomly during the tour period Sept’2020 to Jan’2021. Data was collected from airlines passengers, tourists at destinations, guests from hotels and site visitors. In total data were collected from 88 respondents from different places like Dubai Airport, Emirates Airlines, Ethiopian Airports and Airlines, and Air India, Indigo Airlines, Mumbai and Ahmedabad Airports and also from tourists places and hotels located at Diu, Somnath and Kolkata in India. Due to Corona and restrictions imposed by various authorities it was decided to limit the data upto 88 only. Purposely data were collected from heterogeneous mixtures of respondents. Data comprised of both male and female respondents. Data analysis was done on the basis of observations, opinions  and focus group discussions. Date were collected in a  rough note pad and later on converted into result and opinion. The secondary data were collected from online source.

OPINIONS AND DISCUSSION

During interaction with travellers and tourists, it was found that they were not willing to stay at home. Globalisation has made them dynamic and problem solvers. They are ready  take challenge  due to  their perception that Ecotourism and health tourism could help them in fast recovery from  Covid19 disaster. They were found talking that lockdown can not be a solution for such health hazards. It was understood from the focus group discussion that home arrest kind of conditions could decease the immunity of healthy people due to rising level of unwanted stress . Instead of sitting ideal in house and developing mental stress, these tourists and travellers were showing interest to visit the pollution free environment. Their preferences were organic farm, rural area, hill station, wildlife, forest, or any open space with peaceful environment and greenery. Fresh air and natural healing was the important requirements for thirty five percent of tourists including travellers. Crowded city life was the major pushing factors among them and hybrid food was the minor factor. Busy work schedule, rush for office hours, pollutions and consumption of fast food were the major concern for seventy percent of people. Dirty politics and blind scientific development in many countries was highlighted by forty percent of participants in discussion. Global trade war, cold , ethnic war and developing world war like situations due to high investments in procurement of weapons and production of technology were the issues among sixty eight  percent of the people. People were found telling that Corona(covid19) like pandemic is the result of blind growth and uncontrolled development in the world. Tourism should not be stopped, was the demand of tourists, visitors and  travellers. People were found enjoying more at tourism destinations due to less crowd and congestion.

SUGGESTIVE FRAMEWORK

 Destinations should come out with proper tourism plan and facilities. Destinations need to design and offer an attractive ecotourism basket with health benefits. It means health tourism either should be part of ecotourism or vise versa. Eco-health tourism can be introduced to the market which will be combination of ecotourism and health tourism components. Proper infrastructure need to be developed in accordance with any pandemic guidelines and proper facilities must be available to cater the emerging need of the targeted market.

Organic food and farm tourism can be prescribed within the framework of eco-health tourism. Hospitality and tourism workers should be ready to take on challenges of health workers. Specific training can be provided to cope with unwanted situations and uncertainties. Hiking, walking, trekking wildlife watching and nature connection could be the part of any eco-health tourism programme in addition to organic food festival and farm visit. Tourist must participate in organic food processing activity in limited number. Each tour must contain a good package of natural and health benefits. No package should be less than one week or two weeks. Length of stay should be logically defined and justified in terms of achieving immunity and other health benefits of international standard. Yoga and indigenous medicine particularly herbal like Ayurveda must be introduced in each tour program. Vaccination camp can also be the part of such programmes. The following point should be considered while designing and developing eco-health tourism.

I. Selection of right destination and ecotourism programmes.

II. Highlighting the eco-friendly resources available at destination.

III. Projecting health benefits and gross happiness from programs.

IV. Appointing renowned doctor(allopathic medicine practioners) or Ayurvedacharya( Ayurvedic Medicine practioners) as an ambassador to promote.

V. Using v-logs, blogs, instagram, twitter, facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram and other social media for promotion.

VI. Demonstrating organic food, organic farm, fam house and surrounding environment.

VII. Developing trust, confidence  and willingness among host community to take eco-health tourism as an socio-economic and environmental friendly activity to cope with Corona pandemic and crisis.

VIII. Finding out the new destination with less or no population, and starting with cruiseship tourism and later on converting it into full ecotourism activities.

IX. Motivating government or local authority to support the eco-health tourism programmes through various ways and means.

X. Involving NGOs in day to day operation.

XI. Recruiting good number of Yoga instructors and indigenous medicine practioners for providing unforgettable learning experiences and health benefits too.

XII. Anticipating guests and tourists in farming and food processing process.

XIII. Designing the ecotreks and exotic trip. 

XIV. Focus should be given on wildlife watching and bird watching.

XV. Minimizing the people to people interactions by maximizing the people to nature interactions.

XVI. Exploring the new geomorphological sites and health zones.

XVII. Flexible visa policy and other health benefits for international travellers/tourists.

XVIII. Diverting the investments into saving wildlife, nature and health protection rather than buying weapons for war. Countries should realize that they can’t expand their boundary in the democratic world. Any kind of misconduct or misadventures would result in more devastating pandemic than Corona(Covid19). 

XIX. Inviting private party to start venture or cooperative model of tourism development and management.

XX. Priority should be given on local, regional and domestic tourism and later on can be diverted to international tourism.

XXI. Learning from the past, living in the  and saving for the future generations should be the ultimate goals of any activities including of tourism.

XXII. Save Nature, Save Earth and Save the World.

XXIII. Travel writers and travel magazines should highlight the ecotourism and health tourism destinations.

XXIV. Local and national authority should check for the proper logistical arrangements for ecotourists and health tourists groups.

Further in addition to the above points more points can be added to achieve the goals of pandemic free world. Tourism is the only way to heal the world with happiness and humanity. Every country should start eco-health tourism programme from local level or domestic level. 

CONCLUSION

Lockdown can not be a long term solution for  any pandemic like Covid19. Providing opportunity to get relief from mental stress in the lap of clean and green nature would be the acceptable solution. Eating organic food and breathing in pollution free environment could improve the situations occurred due to Corona(Covid19). Eco-health tourism has potential to satisfy the need of emerging market and crisis. Proper framework of destination management organisation (DMO) will help in achieving the goals of healthy immunity and sustainable tourism.

LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH

Any generalised idea is not right due to variations in size, goal, changing perceptions, literatures reviewed and region followed. Further research must direct itself for conducting such investigations. This will make the applications more meaningful to make present review and opinion more effective. Further the views suggested are macroscopic, and this can be further extended to more microscopic level.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To the President, Vice President Academic and Research, Dean  College of Agri/N/ Resources, HoD, Department of Wildlife and Ecotourism, Gambella University, Gambella, Ethiopia.


REFERENCE

https://musicfoodandlife.com/organic-arable-sector-has-more-scope/ by Thomas F/retrieved on 30 Jan’2021

https://tourismjournals.asia/Articles-/-Insight/corona(covid-19) And Tourism/04-2020

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/small-farms-find-creative-ways-attract-visitors-during-coronavirus-pandemic-180975255/ by Laura Kinir/ July 9,2020

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/natural-resources-environment/organic-agriculture/organic-market-overview.aspx/by Kelly B. Maguire- Last updated September 10, 2020

Kumar C, 2020, Tourism crisis and revival, KDP Publishing, USA, Amazon.com




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