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20 © Batta 2016 | SMEs and Sustainable Tourism
approach (Novelli, et al., 2006). However, the
usual cluster approach does not take into
consideration the community concerns of
tourism development, which are very important
from the tourism sustainability point of view
(Simmons, 1994). A community’s practical
involvement in tourism has been appreciated by
the researchers and practitioners as being of
central importance ever since the publication of
Murphy (1985) (Campbell, 1999; Mountain
agenda, 1999; Ross and Wall, 1999; WTO,
2003). However, there has not been much
clarity on how should it be achieved even
though the debate centers on issues like typolo-
gies of participation, development and planning
paradigms, role of stakeholders, and tourism
initiative ownership structures (Ashley, 2000;
Beeton, 2006; Ryan, 2002;Tosun, 2006).
There are three approaches to achieve sustain-
ability in tourism (Saarinen, 2006): resource-
based, activity-based, and community-based.
While the resource-based approach is grounded
in the notion that there is a physical limit to
resource use, the activity-based approach relies
on the belief that certain tourism activities have industry, resulting in employment opport-
different kinds of limits on their growth or
certain industry segments have different abili-
ties to cope with impacts. Therefore, instead of
the original resource utilized, the limits of
growth are based on specific changing activities
and products. However, in order to practice true
sustainable tourism, the position of the industry
should be re-evaluated (Saarinen, 2006). The
community-based approach aims at powerful
integration of industry into the social fabric to
promote the improved wellbeing of the
community.
A review of literature on tourism and the host
community shows that while for some, commu-
nity-based tourism revolves around the
question of ownership, management, and
control of tourism projects (Lea, 1988; Schey-
vens, 1999; WWF, 2001), for others (Konto-
georgopoulos, 2005; Li, 2006; Simpson, 2008) it
is not the central issue since it may not always
be possible to ensure community ownership of
tourism initiatives and in certain cases may
even end up creating internal conflicts (Murphy,
2003; Weaver, 1998). What is considered more
relevant is the role of all tourism stakeholders,
Science Target Inc. www.sciencetarget.com
such as industry, governments, and non-govern-
mental organizations, in managing tourism in
various forms that manage and address the
need of communities in all situations. One such
approach is the Community Benefit Tourism
Initiative (CBTI), which relies on the transfer of
benefits to a community regardless of location,
instigation, size, level of wealth, involvement,
ownership, or control (Simpson, 2008). Stake-
holders focus on ensuring the delivery of
benefits to the community while achieving
sustainable tourism development.
Studies have concluded (Khan 1997; Krippen-
dorf 1987; Britton 1983) that tourism,
particularly in the context of developing
countries, is characterized by factors like eco-
nomic capital and control frequently stemming
from outside sources, resulting in flight of
capital as profits repatriated; lack of forward
and backward linkages in the host economies;
inability of the local economy to meet the needs
of the tourism industry, arising out of different
tastes and preferences of the visiting consu-
mers; and the high skill requirements of the
unities going outside. Similar results have been
found in studies conducted in Himachal Pradesh
(Singh, 1989; Batta, 2006). Thus, the CBTI
approach is most suited in the context of
Himachal Pradesh. In the background of SMEs
dominating the scene in the case of most
tourism destinations, the study aims to discover
the impacts of tourism development and SMEs’
role in the context of certain parameters as well
as endeavors to develop a workable model of
sustainable tourism development.
3. Study Methods
3.1 Research Setting
Spread over three square kilometers with a
population of 5000, Manali is located in the
famous Kullu - Manali circuit of Himachal Pra-
desh. About 20,000 people visit the town daily
during the peak tourist season. Primarily
attracting middle class leisure travelers as
families and small groups, it is a popular tourist
destination among the domestic travelers, with
this segment constituting 96 percent of the total