A Critical Study on The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on The Tourism Industry at Nainital, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

Nainital is a well-known hill station in Uttarakhand, India where there is footfall of thousands of tourists every year. Tourism industry at Nainital has always been the main source of income for the people of Nainital. This business has continuously aided in generating high revenue for Uttarakhand State Government. Due to the advent of Covid-19 pandemic, the Government of India enforced complete and partial lockdowns from time to time during 2020-2021 as a measure to control the existing hazardous circumstances prevailing in the country. This brought a drastic blow to the tourism industry at Nainital as well and directly affected the economy of the Uttarakhand State. The abrupt downfall in the industry due to covid -19 instigated the researchers to analyze the scenario in the duration 2020-2021. There were periods of lockdown as well as unlock/partial lockdown in this duration. The researchers analyzed the impact of the pandemic in the tourism industry at Nainital in both the stages-during lockdown and unlock/ partial lockdown. A SWOC (Strengths, Weaknesses, and Opportunities & Challenges) analysis was taken up as an effective warfare mechanism against the ubiquitous unpleasant situation. It was decoded that the surging conditions precipitated from certain psychological and behavioral impediments of all the three components- Government, Public and Covid 19 virus, which were essentially required to be mapped. The present pyramid study is imperial in nature. In the present study the researchers have focused on the study of relationship between the first two components-Government and Public and the third component-Virus of the pyramid. It attempts to trace the impact of these three components on one another through questionnaire survey, group discussion, and telephonic interview. In the present study the researchers not only consider the impact of the pandemic on the unemployment and economy of the state but also on the psychology of the local people as- a-whole. The present study is a visionary and rationalist wherein the researchers consider the scope of survival of tourism industry at Nainital in 2022.