Volume 4 • Issue 5 • 1000183 J Tourism Hospit ISSN: 2167-0269 JTH, an open access journal Research Article Open Access Mamhoori, J Tourism Hospit 2015, 4:5 DOI: 10.4172/2167-0269.1000183 Research Article Open Access Keywords: Economy; Environment; India; Sustainable tourism development; Socio-culture tour operators Sustainable Tourism Development Te meaning of the term ‘Sustainable Tourism has been seen as a value-laden construct and one that is open to interpretation. It is interpreted- as cast multifariously, as a philosophy, as an ideology, a concept, a political catch phrase, a process or even as product [1]. Te key for Sustainable Tourism ‘is not ensuring the continued introduction of small-scale, environmentally and culturally appropriate form of tourism, but as an activity to make existing mass tourism developments as sustainable as possible’. Document sustainable tourism’s evolution in this direction, highlighting the term’s shif in relevance from small- scale to mass tourism. Sustainable tourism should be considered in the context of a whole system, rather than being conceived solely at the destination level as an approach; now being captured in measurement of tourists’ total ecological impacts (Figure 1). Te World Commission on Economic Development defnes sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” and it is framed by the domains of environmental integrity, social equity and economic prosperity, commonly referred to as the triple bottom line (Table 1). Tour Operators Tour operators, being the key stakeholder in the tourism supply chain, are in a unique position to contribute to the development of sustainable tourism in the country. Since they were the respondents of the empirical survey, the validated framework has direct implications for them. Tough each of the above discussed suggestions has implication for tour operators, the key implication for them is to address those areas of concern where there are implementation gaps. Some of the micro variables like benefts to local community (economic), reducing pollution (environmental), and preserving cultural heritage (socio-cultural) which emerged as signifcant predictors of sustainable Sustainable Tourism Development: An Empirical Survey of Tour Operators in India Mamhoori A* Department of Business Administration, Aligarh Muslim University, Uttar Pradesh, India Abstract Tourism is the fastest developing industry in the world in terms of many items such as employment generation and addition to national income. It generated US$7.6 trillion (10% of global GDP) and 277 million jobs (1 in 11 jobs) for the global economy in 2014. The travel and tourism sector is also the third largest generator of foreign exchange earnings in the world. After having reached a historic milestone of International tourist arrivals also surged, reaching nearly 1.14 billion and visitor spending more than matched that growth. Visitors from emerging economies now represent a 46% share of these international arrivals (up from 38% in 2000). Proving the growth and increased opportunities for travel from those in these new markets. Tourism has maintained its momentum of growth and is expected to reach 1.5 billion by 2020. Increased footfall of tourists and the explosive growth of the industry over the past decade have produced signifcant impacts on natural resources, consumption patterns, pollution and social systems. This has reiterated the need for a more responsible planning and management of the industry in order to minimize its negative impacts and maximize its potential for a sustained development. Sustainable development of tourism, thus, is fast becoming an indispensable aspect of tourism strategy worldwide. The proposed study, thus, is an attempt to explore the status of sustainable tourism development in Indian context. While emphasis has been on all stakeholders contributions in promoting sustainable tourism, focus has been on the role of Tour Operators- the main service providers in the tourism supply chain. An empirical survey has been undertaken to study the perception of Tour Operators towards various dimensions of sustainable tourism in India. Finally, a model for the development of sustainable tourism is proposed from service provider’s (tour operators) perspective based on the fndings of the research. *Corresponding author: Mamhoori A, Department of Business Administration, Aligarh Muslim University, Uttar Pradesh, India, Tel: +919910616711; E-mail: alimamhouri@yahoo.com Received October 23, 2015; Accepted November 23, 2015; Published December 05, 2015 Citation: Mamhoori A (2015) Sustainable Tourism Development: An Empirical Survey of Tour Operators in India. J Tourism Hospit 4: 183. doi:10.4172/21670269.1000183 Copyright: © 2015 Mamhoori A. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Source: Retrieved from WTTC Travel and Tourism Economic Impact [1]. Figure 1: World ranking. J o u r n a l o f T o u r i s m & H o s p i t a l i t y ISSN: 2167-0269 Journal of Tourism & Hospitality