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The quest for alternative approaches to tourism has introduced ecotourism. However, in many instances, ecotourism becomes “green washing” process where revenue generation becomes prominent and protection of environmental assets is kept aside. The present article attempts to examine the impact of ecotourism policy on conservation in Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary (BKWS), Odisha, India.

Using social exchange theory (SET), the article examines whether ecotourism reduces the dependency of the local communities on natural resources and also the impact of ecotourism on conservation of biodiversity in BKWS.

The study using a mixed method approach finds that ecotourism in BKWS is able to provide economic benefits to the villagers. The economic benefits from diversified employment opportunities are able to motivate locals to conserve biodiversity. However, the socio-cultural impact is hardly experienced by the villagers.

By examining the linkage of conservation with community development in a diverse society like India, the paper finds the linkage of conservation with development. The paper has also widened the existing ecotourism literature of India and Odisha. The study adopted SET so as to get a comprehensive understanding at the ground level, forming the basis for future research and further conceptual development.

The results of the study will help policy makers to develop an effective conservation strategy by integrating tourism, conservation and sustainable development of the locals so as to make ecotourism a successful approach in BKWS.

For a growing ecotourism site like BKWS, the current study is the first to assess impact of ecotourism on conservation and local people.

Development project implementation involving ecological and social externalities is an iterative process due to dynamic challenges emerging from the need to reconcile multiple, and often conflicting, interests of stakeholders. Stakeholder interactions result in learnings for project developers as well as policy makers. This paper aims to track corporate-civil society organizations-state interactions and learnings in case of a port development project in an eco-sensitive and socially challenging region of India.

The authors try to unpack the interactions among various stakeholders in the case of development of Dhamra Port being developed by the Dhamra Port Company Ltd, in the state of Orissa, India.

The authors find that sustainable development policy formulation and implementation is an evolutionary process involving plugging of governance gaps at each successive stage with civil society actors playing an active role.

The study is based on single case of a major port development in India.

The paper highlights that development in emerging economies through large projects is unavoidable. The development-sustainability dilemma cannot be overlooked any further; rather, it needs to be resolved with complete participation of all involved stakeholders.

The paper provides account of long and complex interactions among various players involved in developmental project in an emerging economy. The learnings from the paper will be relevant for policymakers, corporate executives and civil society activists.

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 shook up the Global tourism and threatened many tourism destinations. After the first wave of COVID-19, the invention of vaccines prevented the spread of virus and the industry started healing itself. However, the second wave of the pandemic disrupted the recovery plans and polices of many tourism companies and planners. Tourism and Hospitality industry has faced many challenges in the past. But pandemic of this magnitude was unexpected. The impact is much deeper and complete end of such virus is unpredictable. The need of the hour is to take actions to unpack and reduce such recurring repercussion of COVID-19 and rethink and repackage tourism for restoring the demand. This foregrounds a framework to identify the impact of COVID-19 on Odisha Tourism and formulate a strategic approach for the restoration and survival of the tourism industry in Odisha. The study is both exploratory and descriptive in nature, based upon a qualitative research approach and includes collection of both primary and secondary data. Results of the study reveal that lockdown/shutdown and other restrictions due to pandemic have impacted the key tourism stakeholders in Odisha leaving them under financial instability. The study emphasises on promotion of domestic tourism in a big way. The study focuses on alternative tourism development and improved infrastructure relating to the screening, sanitisation and social distancing of the visitors will build confidence among the visitors and recreate interest in travel. IATA Travel Pass/Vaccination certificate should be a mandatory travel document for safe travel practice.

Recognising the literature of a field is vital for advancement in that field. Yet, there has not been a systematic analysis of recent publications published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights (JHTI). Therefore, this research aims to do a bibliometric analysis of articles published in JHTI during the previous five years.

This study used bibliometric techniques and indicators to analyse JHTI publications from 2018 to 2022. The data utilised in the study were obtained from Scopus and subsequently subjected to analysis through the Bibliometrix software.

The findings show good collaboration between the production components (country, institution and author) in JHTI. The co-occurrence analysis of keywords comprises five clusters; the co-citation analysis comprises six; and a group of articles connected with psychological aspects and areas such as motivation, attitude, customer engagement, place attachment and behavioural intention was the most remarkable cluster. Sharing economy, destination marketing, destination image and some, to an extent, social media and revenue management are just a few of the niche themes that have the potential to come up.

This study will be helpful as a roadmap for researchers in different fields who are interested in such studies, as well as for editorial board members and those who work in JHTI.

Scholars and practitioners may benefit the most from this research by obtaining insight into the development of JHTI's research and the areas of the hospitality and tourism industries that need more study.

The current study is both necessary and valuable because it is the first to provide insight into the effectiveness and intellectual framework of the hospitality and tourism literature selected by the JHTI.

This study provides empirical evidence of the economic valuation of ecosystem services. It examines the willingness-to-pay (WTP) and compensating surplus (CS) in response to policy change based on focus group discussion (FGD) and survey.

A randomized conjoint analysis based experiment was conducted in seven villages of Sundarbans in Bangladesh to elicit stated preference data and measure WTP and CS. Each respondent faced three options in every choice card-two hypothetical alternatives and one status quo scheme. Four alternatives – payment for ecosystem services, storm protection, erosion control and habitat for fish breeding – are randomly and simultaneously assigned to the two alternatives.

The findings suggest that age, income, education, family size and occupational status are the influential factor to choice the relevant attributes of ecosystem services and their levels. Villagers would like to pay annually Tk. 703, Tk. 281, and Tk. 59 for lower, moderate, and higher ecosystem services. With these WTP, they get surplus Tk. 760, Tk. 138, and Tk. 346 respectively.

The lower WTP does not necessarily imply low demand for ecosystem service, as the findings from WTP illustrate potential demand for ecosystem services of Sundarbans.

The study provides an important insight into the ecosystem services and values of Sundarbans mangrove forests for welfare and can inform policy for sustainable use of resources of this forest.

There is a crucial gap in understanding what could villagers be ready for WTP for better ecosystem services of Sundarbans mangrove forest, how do payment based ecosystem services, as a proxy for the conservation of Sundarbans mangrove, and to what extent the policy can be strengthened.