Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies ISSN: 2321-8819 (Online) Volume 2, Issue 4, April 2014 2348-7186 (Print) Available online at www.ajms.co.in 1 Seasonal Concentration of Domestic and International Tourists: An overview of Himachal Tourism Avinash Rana Research Scholar Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala (India) Abstract: The paper describes and analyses the seasonal concentration of Himachal tourism and compares between arrivals of domestic and international tourists using Gini coefficient. This method is applied to monthly time series data from year 2004 to 2012, the data consists of monthly tourist arrival of domestic as well as international tourists. The aim of this analysis is to determine the strength of seasonality criteria in Himachal Tourism. The results will be useful in deciding the overall impact of seasonality on the tourism sector. Keywords: Tourists; Domestic Tourists; International Tourists; Himachal Tourism Introduction Seasonality is one of the distinctive characteristics and a major problem of tourism industry, and it has shown a global presence. Seasonality refers to the temporal fluctuations or imbalance in the phenomenon of tourism i.e. the variable flow of tourists which can be expressed in terms of fluctuations in receipts, visitation numbers, occupancy rates and bed nights (Jafari, 2013). Allcock (1994) defines it is the tendency of tourist flows to become concentrated into relatively short periods of the year. The total contribution of tourism to GDP in India has grown at a CAGR of 4.6 percent during 2006-2010 period, reaching INR 6,000 billion in 2012. According to World Travel & Tourism Council, the tourism sector in India is expected to grow at even faster rate of 8 percent over the next decade, contributing approximately INR 13,000 bn to the GDP by 2022. As tourism sector is still a lynch pin for many economies in the world, it is important to investigate the seasonal behavior of the tourists across the globe The phenomenon of seasonality has been identified since past few decades and various attempts have been made to explore it as an area for research, but still it lacks a scientific theory (nadal). Therefore there is still need to strengthen this phenomenon by accumulating evidences from different parts of the world.. This research is an attempt to study the seasonal pattern of tourist arrivals in the state of Himachal Pradesh. And, compare the seasonal behavior of domestic and international tourists using time series data for every month from the year 2004 to 2012. This analysis will also depict the trend of tourist arrivals since last few years. Tourism seasonality Seasonality in tourism is caused by a number of factors which can be classified in three major types as, natural factors (such as snowfall, temperature variations, location, etc.); institutional factors which are man-made (such as actions and policies regarding culture, religion and social life etc.) (Weidner S. 2009).Butler (1994) cites other causes: social pressure or fashion, sporting calendars, and inertia or tradition. Moreover, climate, available holidays, special characteristics of the destination, and marketing including special events determine the different types of seasonal variation in tourism demand. (Kulendran & Wong 2005). Previous research advocates that seasonality is a major problem with multiple facets and implications, and it is something to be overcome and its effect should be adjusted or abridged at least (Butler, 1998). An alternate opinion is also advocated by some scholars which grasps the positive side of seasonality, as it provides critical time needed for refurbishing the environment and the physical as well as social resources (Butler, 1998). As a consequence of this difficult acuity, much attention has been paid and much effort made by both public and private sectors to reduce seasonality through a variety of approaches (Butler 1994). Measuring Seasonality There is ample proof that the frequency of tourist arrivals changes throughout the year and thus poses a challenge for the tourism infrastructure set in place and for the overall tourism sector. (Nadal et al, 2004) suggests that seasonality is a particular kind of non-uniform distribution; therefore different measures have been proposed for its quantification. The Gini coefficient is a well- known and frequently used measure for quantifying inequality. It has been used to measure Tourism seasonality in various studies. In addition, this index can be decomposed in a very useful way for assessing the degree of variation within and between seasons, as well as providing a measure of CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies (AJMS)