Exploring the Impact of Tourist Arrivals on Sustainability Metrics using Data Analytics

Tourism contributes to economic growth, however, it also has far-reaching environmental implications. Overcrowding of tourists has become a crucial issue as this leads to ecological degradation, posing challenges to the diverse ecosystems of India. This paper examines key factors that compromise ecological sustainability due to tourist inflow in India. These factors include tourist arrival factors (age group, gender, purpose of visiting, and stay length), which have an impact on the sustainability metrics. The sample data includes the last 07 years of tourist data, and a tourist awareness questionnaire was prepared for tourists coming to Agra. The analysis of the questionnaire shows that 27.5% of tourists were aware of environmental concerns, 1.5% of tourists knew waste disposal practices, 28.5% of these were concerned about over-tourism and capacity management, and 39.5% of tourists were aware that pollution and waste levels have emerged as a major concern. 89.67% of the variance in energy consumption due to tourist arrival, 47.11% of the variance in water consumption, and 89.67% of waste generation are explained by the regression model of sustainability metrics. These analyses emphasized the need to design strategies for implementing sustainable tourism practices and encouraging active community participation of locals for building a sustainable environment.