Tracing the Sustainability Components in the Indian Tourism Curricula: An Exploratory Study

Abstract Tourism for its intrinsic character of people, planet and profit has been an enduring area of research for sustainable policy and practices. Planning and implementing sustainable tourism in India are largely shaped and groomed in the classrooms. Currently, over two hundred universities across the country offer tourism programs. The current study involves a two-stage process. Available literature was first summarized into items of sustainability components required of a program structure such as sustainability aspects; viz. socio-economic, environmental, and business, case study approach, interaction with stakeholders, research & practices in local settings and timely update of the syllabus. Such components in the second stage of the research formed the basis of the questionnaire used for qualitative research involving senior academics responsible for designing the syllabi. Findings present a model on the effective integration of sustainable tourism theories and practices into tourism curricula.