Jublee Goswami
Abstract
The state of Assam, located in the north-eastern region of India is a constituent unit of the âEastern Himalayan Biodiversity Regionâ, one of the two biodiversity hotspots of the country and the state having 18 wildlife sanctuaries and 7 National Parks has immense potential for attracting wildlife tourists, both domestic and foreign. The present paper studies the trend of wildlife touristâs arrivals to Assam and aims at forecasting such touristsâ arrivals for the next five years. The time series data of touristsâ arrivals from 2011 to 2022 are analysed using percentages and descriptive statistics. A trend analysis, considering a linear trend is conducted using least squares. Further, a trend analysis is also conducted to study the pattern of tourist inflows using Mann Kendall test and Senâs Slope and the forecast for next five years are obtained. The present study finds that the touristsâ influx to Kaziranga National Park of the state is substantially high. The study finds an increasing trend of touristsâ inflow to the state and to Kaziranga National Park but observes that the utilisation of tourism potential is not even across all national parks.