Sustainability Issues in River Tourism: A Case Study of Ganges in Varanasi

Abstract

Understanding future expectations and fulfilling current demands with a view of conserving social, cultural and natural environment of a destination, can be referred to as sustainable  tourism.  Changes  in  social  and  cultural environment are identified a little early than their natural counterpart. The first two being more vocal and narrates quick reactions among its audiences. Changes in natural environment lie silent till the time they reach a visible level  of  depletion.  The  present  paper  will  highlight sustainability issues in river tourism, which is one of the significant natural resources for tourism. Understanding the dependency of tourism on rivers and highlighting its positive and negative effects of it, will be discussed in the paper. The paper is supported by a case study on „The Ganges in Varanasi‟.  The Holy Ganges is the lifeline of the city and is facing immense sustainability issues, which has  raised  questions  against  her  future  existence.  The problems  faced and  measures  taken by  various organizations,  government  bodies,  and  individuals  to protect the lifeline of the oldest living city of the world will be examined further.