Relevance of OD Interventions in Ecotourism: An Empirical Study with Reference to Kerala

Transcription

1 Relevance of OD Interventions in Ecotourism: An Empirical Study with Reference to Kerala Mr. C.D.Mathew* and Dr. Kurian Joseph** Concept o Eco-Tourism and Organisation Development Introduction Eco- tourism in simple words means management of tourism and conservation of nature in a way so as to maintain a fine balance between the requirements of tourism and ecology on the one hand and the needs of the local communities for jobs - new skills, income generating employment and a better status for women on the other. The global importance of eco- tourism, its benefits as well as its impact was recognised with the launching of the year 2002 as the International Year of Eco- tourism (IYE) by the United Nations General Assembly. The IYE offers an opportunity to review eco- tourism experiences worldwide, in order to consolidate tools and institutional frameworks that ensure its sustainable development in the future. This means maximizing the economic, environmental and social benefits from eco- tourism, while avoiding its shortcomings and negative impacts. As a concept, eco- tourism has gained momentum recently, but as a way of life Indians have practiced ecotourism since times immemorial by their animalistic approach to nature and human needs. Eco- tourism has been defined variously. As far back as 1995, Herold Goodwin called it "purposeful travel to natural areas to understand the culture and natural history of the environment taking care not to alter the integrity of the ecosystem, while producing economic opportunities that make the conservation of natural resources beneficial to local people". The World Tourism Organization (WTO) has defined it as "tourism that involves traveling to relatively undisturbed natural areas with the specified object of studying, admiring and enjoying nature and its wild plants and animals, as well as existing cultural aspects (both of the past and the present) found in these areas". In sum, the definitions focus on three significant aspects- nature, tourism and local communities. It differs in a meaningful way from mass tourism that aims at consuming nature and leaving it depleted on more than one front. Being an environment friendly activity, eco- tourism aims at promoting environmental values and ethics and preserving nature in its uninterrupted form. It thus benefits wildlife and nature by contributing towards ecological integrity. The tourists have a first hand encounter with nature and learn to admire it than to ravage it. It whets their curiosity for exploring nature and helps them enjoy its beauty and diversity. Participation of the local communities ensures economic benefits for them, which in the longer run can ensure a better status and an easier life. Since the essence of eco- tourism lies in admiration of nature and out-door recreation, it encompasses a wide range of activities such as trekking, hiking, mountaineering, bird-watching, boating, rafting, biological explorations and visiting wildlife sanctuaries. In that it is akin to adventure tourism with the difference that whereas adventure tourism looks for thrill, eco- tourism ensures satisfaction. Its inspirational and emotional aspect is valued because it does not aim at consumptive erosion of natural resources. India is one of the seven biodiverse countries of the world and has a rich cultural heritage. It has a vast potential for eco- tourism that needs to be tapped for economic benefits as well as for healthy conservation and preservation of nature. At present India has a considerable network of sanctuaries and national parks covering around 4.68 per cent of the geographical area. But more efforts are needed in the field. In the International Year of Eco- tourism, some important decisions have been taken by the Government and the private sectors to promote eco- tourism. For example, the Himachal Pradesh Government has announced a policy of development of eco- tourism with special emphasis on the involvement of the local communities. Likewise, the forest and tourism departments of Karnataka, Sikkim, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh have designated officials to coordinate these activities. Some states have issued instructions for recycling the entry fees from protected areas for conservation and development. The Thenmala Eco- tourism Promotion Society, launched by Kerala will develop a model of eco- tourism. In the private sector, the concept of ecofriendly resorts and hotels is gaining recognition. The progress made by Maldives in the field of eco- tourism is worth mentioning. Since tourism is the prime industry in Maldives, they have grown dependent on it and have worked out ways and means to protect their reefs. It is incumbent on all the resorts and hotels to dispose off their garbage, conserve water, and * Part-time Research Scholar Sastra University. mathewerattupetta@yahoo.co.in **,Reader & Research Guide, St.Dominics College,Parathodu P O Kanjirapally,Kottayam

2 recycle the waste material. Other countries like Indonesia, Philippines, and Nepal have evolved effective methods for using the income generated by eco- tourism for the benefit of the local communities. In Philippines, for example, the fishermen have been convinced to shift from blast fishing to other more traditional and safe methods. In Indonesia, Project Bird Watch has been launched to protect its rare birds. he essential key elements of eco- tourism are - a well-preserved eco-system to attract tourists, cultural and adventure activities, active involvement of the locals who are able to provide authentic information about nature, culture and their ethnic traditions to the visitors, and finally empowering the local populace to manage eco- tourism so that they ensure conservation through alternate livelihood opportunities. An effective organization and management development strategy is the most effective morale builder there is. Apart from the benefits of effective individuals and teams, recruitment, staff turnover and motivation are all improved in an organisation that takes trouble to develop its management staff and processes. Organization development is an integrated approach to developing individuals, managers, teams and processes to improve corporate performance. Organisation development is a first step towards creating a learning organisation and will bring benefits including: improved productivity and enhanced quality greater staff motivation better morale leading to reduced absenteeism and staff turnover flexibility and response to change Significance of Organization Development Interventions and Eco-Tourism OD Interventions are set of structured activities in which selected organisational units (targeted groups or individuals ) engage in a task or sequence of tasks where the task goals are related directly or indirectly to organisational improvement. Interventions constitute the action thrust of organisation development. Today almost all countries of the world try to develop tourism because tourism can, in turn, develop any country. It is a challenge to the modern world economy. Changing life styles, sudden increase in the income levels, breaking up of the economy globalization and liberalization, all led to steep growth of tourism industry. New travel patterns, changes in consumer behaviour, economic strength of markets, new destinations, political realignments, new waves of mass tourism and package tourism augmented this growth. Eco-Tourism is a relatively new concept people who are concerned with tourism industry has to be rigorously trained in order to understand the new concepts, applications, methodologies etc. Tourism intermediaries like hoteliers, operators of resorts, restaurants, tour operators come under this purview. Organisation Development principles are the most effective tools to implement training methodologies in eco- tourism. Need and Importance of the Study Kerala, God s own Country, was formed in Since then its progress in various fields has been remarkable. With Sq.kms of land area, it now accommodates nearly 32 million people. It has a peculiar pattern of development known as Kerala model of development. But as a recent study says the basic characteristic of Kerala model of development is the paradox of social development and economic stagnation. There are spectacular improvements in the quality of life, there is 90.9% literacy, low infant mortality, high life expectancy, favourable sex ratio in favour of women and minimum rural-urban differences. Still the economic status of Kerala remains low, as there is either negative development or stagnation in the primary and secondary sectors. In spite of all the shortfalls outlined above, tourism in Kerala has recorded remarkable growth in recent years. International tourist arrivals increased to 3.46 lakhs in 2005 from 2.08 lakhs in 2001.Domestic tourist arrivals (excluding pilgrims) increased from lakhs in 2001 to lakhs in 2005.Thus in five years to 2005, annual growth rate of foreign and domestic tourists arrivals are respectively 13.27% and 2.69 %. According to the study of World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) on tourism sector in the State, Travel and Tourism generates as much as 7.7 % of GSP and 6.2% of total employment. Visitor exports (tourism receipts) is worked out as 14.3% of the total export of the state. The National Geographic Traveller has found Kerala as one of the ten paradises and one of the 50 places in the world recommended to be visited in a life time. The Government of Kerala is trying to develop Conference on Tourism in India Challenges Ahead, May 2008, IIMK 192

3 tourism in Kerala because it is conceived as an instrument for social and economic growth. There is tremendous growth in the number of foreign tourist arrivals, domestic tourist arrivals, tourism earnings, employment generated by tourism and also in the outlay of the government regarding tourism. In this connection it has been found that a study about the ecological aspects of tourism and making the concerned people aware and get them trained is a necessity. Is it possible to improve the social status of people who are involved in eco-tourism through the application of OD.? Is it possible to improve the economic status of local people who are involved in eco tourism through the application of OD? Is it possible to improve the environmental awareness level of local people who are involved in eco-tourism through the application of OD?Is it possible to improve the operational efficiency of eco-tourism through the application of OD? These are some of the questions that are to be answered. Methodology The study is explorative in nature and hence will be designed as a hypothesis testing one.. Before-and-after with control design: In this design two groups are selected and the dependent variable is measured in both the groups for an identical time period before the introduction of OD. The OD programme is then introduced into the test group only, and the dependent variable is measured in both for an identical time-period after the introduction of the OD. The OD effect is determined by subtracting the change in the dependent variable in the control group from the change in the dependent variable in test group. Several issues relating to the main aspects of the study have been discussed in detail with experts, researchers and other eminent personalities in the field of tourism to get an insight into the subject prior to the collection of data Sampling Design A two stage judgment sampling method will be used for selecting the respondents from the universe. The universe of the study will be covered all the eco-tourism destinations which are declared by eco-tourism directorate of Kerala. There are 56 locations identified by the eco-tourism directorate of Kerala. But some of the locations are at developing stages. At the first stage of sampling, Periyar Tiger Reserve and Thenmala have been selected as a judgment sample for this study as they have been developed to the full potential. At the second stage of sampling, samples have been taken from both the areas for experiments Collection of Data The data has been collected by conducting interviews with the samples selected for the study. Multiple choice questions, open-end questions, rankings by the respondents and a five point scale developed by the researcher specially for this in conformity with statistical methods and principles has been used wherever necessary. Analysis of the Data Effect of Transaction Analysis as OD Intervention A group of seven tourist guides in Periyar Tiger Reserve has undergone transaction analysis intervention, another group of five tourist guides have been compared with that of the earlier group. T test at 5 percent level: whether there is significant evidence that OD intervention has increased the awareness level of tourist guides. We have assumed (A1)=10 for the sample of 7 and assumed mean (A2)=8 for the sample of 5 tourist guides. Solution : Taking the null hypothesis that OD intervention has not increased the awareness level of tourist guides we can write : Ho:u1=u2 Ha:u1>u2 ( as we want to conclude that OD intervention has increased the awareness level of tourist guides) Since in the given question variance of the population are not known and the size of the samples is small, we shall use t-test for difference in means, assuming the population to be normal and thus work out the test statistic Conference on Tourism in India Challenges Ahead, May 2008, IIMK 193

4 Sample 1 Sample2 S.No. X1 X1-A1 (X1-A1) 2 S.No. X2 X2-A2 (X2-A2) n1=7, (X1-A1)=28, (X1-A1) 2 =134 n2=5, (X2-A2)=15, (X2-A2) 2 =69 Degrees of freedom =(n1+n2-2)=10, As Ha is one sided, we shall apply a one-tailed test for determining the rejection region at 5 per cent level which comes to as under, using table of t-distribution for 10 degrees of freedom R:t>1.812 The observed value of t is which falls in the rejection region and thus we reject Ho and conclude that OD intervention has increased the awareness level of tourist guides at 5 % level of significance Comparison of two OD Interventions (MBO Vs Sensitivity Training) Twelve newly selected tourist guides in Thenmala are chosen for OD intervention through a standard selection procedure so that we assume that they are of equal ability prior to the intervention. This group of twelve is then divided into two groups of six each, one group for each OD Intervention. Tourist guides are randomly assigned to the two groups. After the intervention is completed, all guides are given the same examination and the result is as under. OD Interventions No. Passed No. failed Total Sensitivity Training MBO Total Fisher-Irwin Test Hypothesis is that two OD interventions are equally good and the significance level is 5%Probability of Sensitivity Training doing as well or better=pr(5 passing and 1 failing)+ Pr(6 passing and 0 failing) =224/924+28/924= =.27 Probability of MBO doing as well or worse=pr(3passing and 3 failing)+pr(2 passing and 4 failing) 224/924+28/924= =.27 The calculated value is greater than.05 hence we must accept the null hypothesis. This means that at a significance level of 5% the result obtained in the above table is not significant. Hence we can infer that both the OD interventions are equally good. Conclusion and Recommendations OD interventions are basically behavioural science interventions, it has got great impact in improving the operational efficiency of eco-tourism. It has to be specially noted that different OD interventions do not differ much in their effect. Application of OD interventions helps in the following aspects (i) Behaviour Modification: It is a programme where managers identify performance- related employee behaviours in tourism destinations and then implement an intervention strategy like MBO to strengthen desirable performance behaviours and weaken undesirable behaviours. (ii) Encounter Groups: Encounter groups aim to provide participants with intense experiences to help them their ways of interacting with tourists, their styles of self presentation, their values, etc. (iii) Role playing: Role playing develops certain competencies such as perceiving the feelings and ideas of tourists, learning skill of relating a situation, gaining better insight into inter-personal relations. Conference on Tourism in India Challenges Ahead, May 2008, IIMK 194

5 (iv) Administering Instruments: These instruments increase self-awareness and interpersonal effectiveness through feedback among local people who act as tourist guides. These facilitate new behaviour and understanding concepts due to personal involvement in tests. Finally it has come to the recommendation that in order to improve trust, enthusiasm, ambition to succeed, mutual interest, workability of goals, openness to share goals, and resilience, OD interventions can be applied among local people who act as tourist guides in eco-tourism destinations. Ultimately it would lead to the improvement of social, economic, and cultural status of local people while enabling enhanced quality and productivity in eco-tourism destinations. But only a transformational behavioural scientist with burning spirit can transform a local person to a team player eco-tourism guide. Reference George, K.K., (1993), Limits to Kerala Model of Development, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, p.3. Cyriac Mathew, (2005), Development of Tourism and its Economic Impact in Kerala PhD theses M.G.University Vijayakumar B., (1995), Sustainability of Eco tourism, PhD.thesis, University of Kerala Anand Mathur in her published work Environmental management: A Challenge Before Developing Countries - published paper SAJOSPS July December (2006). Sampad Kumar Swain Eco- Tourism and Sustainable Development A Case Study of Chandaka Wildlife Sanctuary in Orissa-published paper SAJOSPS Jan June (2007). Maheswari BL - Organisation Development in Search of New Identity, Indian Journal Training and Development (special number),january June, (1981). Maya Reddi- Team Development : A Review, ASCI Journal of Management, September (1983). Archana Shukla Characteristics of an Effective Organisation : An empirical study Journal of NMIMS Management Review, July-December, (1993). Madhavi C.V. - Institutional Development for Sustainable Growth: A Study of Andhra Pradesh Forest Department published in Management of Development: Growth with Equity (AMDISA 1998) Mohan Gopinath Organisational Learning, South Asian Journal of Management (2001) Conference on Tourism in India Challenges Ahead, May 2008, IIMK 195