Development of GIS Database
A ayatematic and coherent implementation of GIS was adopted for development of an up-to-date, accessible and comprehensive database. The lowest unit for the tourism master plan for development of spatial database was village. The spatial database was created separately for each district which was mosaic later for date database. The attribute data related to tourism industry were prepared separately for each district maintaining the capabilities of its lateral integration with spatial data. Separate customized routines were added for enhancing the database management for processing the attribute data and topologically structured graphic data. Since the data at GIS platform was tried to a common referencing system, it was easy to use the same data across multiple queries and applications as well as to associate diverse data sets, was previously not possible for joint analysis.
GIS Output
The customized query model was developed for an Interactive query in text, report, and graphic format. Following major query model were developed for Tourism Master Plan for GOA
- The overall view of terrain characteristics of the state and the locatin of the tourist spots, in relation to the terrain.
- The accessibility to the particular spots and the available infrastructure facilities of the spot may be analyzed the problems in respect to the infrastructure can be identified.
- The type of tourist visiting the placesa (domestic/foregn) & their respective expenditure on various items.
- Type of economic activities centers as food, bars, hotel & restaurants, on time scale.
- Transport and related services.
- It is visualized that by applying the tourism multiplier how the economy is going to be enhanced.
- To identify the location of new tourist spots.
- Possibte impact of new tourist spot/activity on socio-economic and environmental aspects at particular location.
- Vivid picture of how the tounsm activity may degrade or deteriorate the existing environment of Goa on time scale.
Results and Discussions:
Identification of Tourist Spots: The Master Plan of Goa identifies and classifies the tourist places of Goa into following categories:
- Beaches
- Churches & Chapels
- Tempiese Mosques
- Heritage Towns
- Museum & Art Galleries
- Wild Life Sanctuaries
- Springs
- Other places of interest
Study of Tourism infrastructure: The next task in Master Plan is a detailed inventory of the infrastructure available like Networks:
- Transport
- Accommodation in terms of hotels, their categories, number and available rooms in them
- Existing water supply system, demand of water for different purpose like urban water supply for tourism, Rural water for tourism
- Sewage collection & treatment system
- Power generation and consumption
- Touroperators and travel agents
Differed layers will be created for all infrastructural facilities and they would be compared with the existing & projected demands. Geo-processing will be done in this case and gaps & problems will be identified
Trendy Study: The third task carried out by the Master Plan was trend study. The GIS can also be used here to forecast the Tourist visiting Goa and it can also be predicated that which areas are going to have more concentration of tourists. The arrival of tourist by different transport modes like chartered flights, roadways railways will be collected as traffic management can be done accordingly. Tht trends of tourist arrivals in different seasons can be analyzed & accordingly GIS can be used to predict how the tourist pressure can be managed in particular season.
SWOT Analysis: A SWOT analysis can be done about tourism by using GIS technology to identify the strength & weakness in development of tourism. The opportunities of further development can be identified by geo-processing and plans are drawn of see how they are to be utilized optimally like newer fields of educational tourism, health tourism (as in Kerala), Business Tourism (by promotion of fairs & festivals) entertainment tourism (like making amusement parks, water parks, aquariums, casinos), adventure tourism (trekking water skiing, wind surfing etc. Cultural tourism is to be promoted.
Specific GIS query and overlay & buffer analysis as:
- A total of 29 beaches have been identified out of which 12 are located in North Goa and are heavily crowded, the 17 beaches of South Goa are almost alien and they should be developed.
- The churches of Goa is dated back to 16th century are examples of Renaissance, early baroque, Mannueline & Gothic Architecture.
- Temples of Goa are distinct in architectural terms in teh sense that they have domes & red tiled sloping roof. The interiors are ornamented with carvings, wood painting, chandeliers & lamps.
- There are towns in Goa which have historical importance like Panaji, old Goa and Margao. They are classified as Heritage Towns.
- In all there are 8 museums & art Galleries in Goa.
- The Junngle beauty & glimpses of wild life can be seen in four wild life sanctuaries and one national park.
- Springs of Salcette, Tiswadi & Bicholim Taluka can worth viewing with few springs mentioned below with medicinal properties.
- Ambora Fountain in Raia Village
- Spring within Aguada Fort
- Springs at Batim
- Springs of Fonderem & Vellin Caidua
- The potentials of historical tourism can be explored through forts.
- Lake tourism may be developed in Mayem lake, Harvalem & Karmali lakes.
- The cultural tourism is also one of the important aspect specially the Carnival of Spring, the food festival at Miramar & Monsoon Festivals like Feast, Gokul Asthami & Ganesh Chathurthe.
- The tourism potentials in all the above mentioned place can be developed with the help GIS. The spots and their locales can be well over viewed through GIS AUDS may be created of all tourist spots & its surroundings.
Impact of Tourism
The next job of the tourism master plan is to identify the new tourist areas by studying the terrain, accessibility and other physical features. The impact of Tourism has to be studied in economic terms, social vakues & environmental sensitivity. For measuring economic impacts the average duration of stay of tourist and the average expenditure done by them is tabulated and a total revenue generation is calculated. Further it is analyzed that how much money generated can create how many employment. A multiplier effect is also analyzed. The GIS technology finally helps in analysing that how the tourism sector is contirbuting in the economy of Goa.
The laying of tourist infrastructure can deplete the forest cover the physical environment of coasts & beaches cn be degraded by increasing pressure of tourist like the plastic pollution in the beaches are common endangering the beach eco-system. GIS will help in identifying the endangered environmental areas and provide solution for effective management.