Journal of Remote Sensing & GIS

Abstract

A GIS Based Ecotourism Infrastructure Planning for Promotion of Tourism in Jungle Mahal of West Bengal

Srikanta Bhaya and Abhisek Chakrabarty

Ecotourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in the tourism industry at present. The market for nature holidays is certainly a growing one. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) has estimated that nature tourism generates 7 percent of all international travel expenditure, the relations Eco- tourisms this is widely use today, but is rarely explain. It is often used interchangeably with others terms such as soft tourisms responsible tourisms and nature tourisms. In simple terms eco tourisms simply means that the main motivation for travel is the desire to view eco system in their natural state. Both in terms of wildlife and the original population, however ecotourism is often taken to be more than this with its proponents requesting that is also concerned and the lives of the local people improved thought of effects of tourisms. Present study is an attempt to identify potential ecotourism sites in Jungle Mahal using Remote Sensing and GIS techniques in forest dominated area of West Bengal. GIS approach of visualization is an innovative discipline to recognize the ‘Ecotourism’ assessment of tourism by integrating spatial and non-spatial data. After identifying the potential sites, a demonstrative plan has been made for Ecotourism development based on locally available natural resources.