SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA: MAKING TALENT SUSTENANCE RELEVANT

Sustainable tourism is economically, socio-culturally and environmentally sustainable and is an activity that can be maintained over the long-term. This is achieved by balancing the needs of tourists with those of the destination. Increasing evidence shows that an integrated approach to tourism planning and management is now required to achieve sustainable tourism. This study aims to highlight that talent sustenance cannot be overlooked in an integrated approach to tourism planning. Successful organizations realize that employee retention is integral to sustained growth and leadership in the marketplace. Sustainable tourism aims to conserve the resources of destinations. Certainly, the indispensability of the most important resource i.e. the human resource is unquestionable. Sustainable tourism strives for quality, not quantity and communities measure tourism success not by the number of visitors but by length of stay, money spent and the quality of the experience. Since hiring and attrition are continuous processes in the market scenario, they can have a devastating effect on the organizations because loss of talent can have a serious impact on customer service and severely impair the sustainable tourism development of a particular area. This study primarily deals with the relevance of a strong and sustainable workforce in developing sustainable tourism in India. The efforts of consistent and appropriate employees can produce abundant opportunities for building the foundation of sustainable tourism in India. Creating a foundation of sustained retention of employees can take years and therefore tourism companies have to ensure focused and calculated methods so that their talent and profits do not drain away. The study is directed at establishing the strategic role of talent sustenance in sustainable tourism development in India. In the wake of the fact that tourism companies are still struggling to institutionalize effective talent retention practices and programmes, those companies that implement streamlined retention are poised for a colossal contribution to achieving sustainable tourism development in India