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International Journal of Environment and Sustainability, 2016, 5(1): 18-34  21

arrivals (E&S, 2003). The main feeder markets       and discipline- based indicators (e.g., economic,
for domestic tourists are north Indian states,      social, environmental, and tourism indicators).
particularly Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and Utter      Data indicators, headline indicators, and indices
Pradesh, followed by Gujrat, Rajasthan, and         are common terms in monitoring and reporting.
Maharastra. Foreign tourists are mostly from        Data is the most basic component of indicator
United Kingdom, Canada, USA, Australia, and         work. Most data cannot be used to effectively
New Zealand.                                        interpret change in the state of the environ-
                                                    ment, the economy, or the social aspects of
The area experiences significant seasonality in     society. Indicators can be superior to data in
arrivals, with 80 percent of the international      several ways (Segnestam, 2000): they provide
visitors arriving in May to October and 48          decision-makers and other target groups with
percent of domestic tourists visiting the area      enough knowledge to formulate initial re-
during April to June. Skiing and trekking are       sponses, and decisions and are more easily
preferred adventure sports during winters.          interpreted than complex data, which can
Mountain ranges surrounding Manali offer ideal      simplify communication. If two or more
ski runs and periods of snowfall to satisfy most    indicators are aggregated, an index is created.
enthusiasts. However, there are no organized        Finally, indicators or indices can be meant to
ski slopes or runs at present, and skiing           function as a headline, a messenger. These types
activities are largely unorganized and locally      of few, well-selected, easily understandable, and
operated. Various trekking trails originate from    communicative indicators are commonly called
various villages near Manali and lead to high       headline indicators.
mountains. These are organized through the
travel agents locally and are very popular          The first step in indicator development is
among national and international tourists.          framework. Indicator framework provides the
There are avenues to further promote                means to structure sets of indicators in a
adventure sports like rafting, rock climbing,       manner that facilitates their interpretation.
paragliding and parasailing in Manali and           Indicators are usually needed for many aspects
neighboring areas of Solang and Pubbar valleys.     of a problem or issue, and the framework
                                                    selected ensures that all of those aspects have
All of the 506 hotels located in Manali are         been taken into account (Segnestam, 2000).
within the category of small and medium             Different analytical levels require different
enterprises (with investment less than Rs. 10       frameworks depending on the detail of analysis
Crore). Much of the industry depends on high        and the structure and purpose of monitoring.
volume and relatively low cost package holi-        These are classified into three broad categories:
days. Over the past two decades there has been      project-based framework; national- level frame-
a phenomenal rise in the number of tourism          work, also called pressure-state response
units in the area, and with other related facili-   framework; and frameworks based off of
ties also coming up in the area as a result of the  environmental themes.
rising tourist demand, the whole economy is
tourism dominated.                                  Based on the review of literature on indicator
                                                    frameworks (Segnestam, 2000; Choi and
3.2 Research Process                                Sirakaya, 2006) and earlier studies done on the
                                                    Manali area (Singh, 1989; Redecon, 2005; HSV,
Indicators have been used for a long time as a      2006), an indicator framework suitable for the
tool with which more information can be             study area was developed. Table 1 presents
obtained about different fields like health,        themes and indicators on which data was
weather, economic welfare, and social issues. As    collected.
the use of indicators has become widespread,
their uses have been expanded to include broad
technical indicators (e.g., indirect/direct, de-
scriptive/analytical, and subjective/objective)

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