Recent changes of hill resorts in Indian Himalaya: A case study of Nainital, Uttarakhand in India

India have maintained the unprecedented stable and high economic growth by the economic liberalization launched in 1991. Along with such economic growth the number of domestic tourists have remarkabley increased. This paper examined recent changes of hill resorts in Indian Himalaya through a case study of Nainital. As a result,the remarkable expansion of tourism in Nainital was confirmed. The white-collar workers who are considered as a new middle class,and visit Nainital with nuclear family,have now become representative tourists of Nainital. They stay only for short-term. In addition, it was observed that the hotel industry in Nainital has provided good employment opportunities, particularly to local people with varying educational background from elementary school education to the university level. It can be concluded therefore that tourism has played an important role in the economic development of the area through creation of direct as well indirect employment. On the other hand,the need of protecting natural environment is clearly understood by the fact that the number of hotels did not increase much in Nainital after the second half of 1990s.