Tourism which is all about leaving the place of origin forat least 24 hours and less than a year for which there can be differentmotivations. The motivating factors can be religion, adventure, culture,education, business, health, status, etc. Motivation is what triggers a need ina person to travel. Taking into consideration the scenario of deteriorating airquality fresh air can emerge out as a strong motivating factor to undertaketravel for people living in such cities where the air is highly polluted. Forthat such people need to be made aware about the ill effects of breathingpolluted air and the need to take a short break to rejuvenate themselves byvisiting such places where they can inhale fresh air so as to mitigate theeffects of inhaling contaminated air for the rest of the days. Although peopleliving in such places are as such not conscious of this very fact and therebyare used to breathe in the contaminated environment in a normal manner. Thegovernment already is aware of such a scenario and is also looking for means tomitigate the levels of toxicity in the air by raising the standards ofpollution control devices etc. At the same time due to the continuous inflow ofpeople in such areas, it does not make any significant difference as thestatistical indications have revealed. An air quality index (AQI) is a numberused by government agencies to communicate to the public how polluted the aircurrently is or how polluted it is forecast to become.
The national air quality index (AQI) was launched in NewDelhi on 17 September 2014 under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The CentralPollution Control Board along with State Pollution Control Boards has beenoperating the National Air Monitoring Programme (NAMP) covering 240 cities ofthe country having more than 342 monitoring stations. The continuous monitoringsystems that provide data on a near real-time basis are installed in New Delhi,Mumbai, Pune, and Ahmedabad. There are six AQI categories namely Good (0-50),Moderate (51-100), Unhealthy for sensitive groups (101-150), Unhealthy (151-200),Very unhealthy (201-300) and Hazardous (Above 300). The air quality index (AQI)of Delhi have crossed the safe level mark by the standard of World HealthOrganization. The permissible limits for PM 2.5 concentrations are less than 60units while the same in Dehli has crossed 200. In 2017, spirometry testsconducted by the Dehli government on citizens to check lung function found thatmore than 34 percent of the people checked had impaired lung function. A studyconducted by the central pollution control board which was conducted byChittaranjan National Cancer Institute found that more than two of five schoolgoing children in Dehli have reduced lung function. It also found that thesputum (a mixture of saliva and mucus coughed up from respiratory tract) samplesof children from Delhi had four times more iron-laden macrophages, indicatingbleeding in the lungs. The scientists also found that the changes in the sputumcorrelated with ambient air pollution. The kids born and brought up in such anenvironment have been inhaling the air in the air-conditioned rooms whether attheir homes or in their schools, colleges, shopping malls, gymnasiums,recreation centers, cars, coaches, trains, etc. In case they are sometime inthe open the air they inhale is just the exhaust of the thousands of outdoorunits of the Air conditioners mounted on the outer walls of the apartments, thechimneys of the industries, the vehicular emissions, etc. The air quality indexof such air is detrimental for their health but they are so used to such anenvironment that they are not even conscious of the toll that it is taking ontheir health. One of the leading pulmonologists from a metropolitan city ofIndia was of the opinion that it requires medical research to establish thefact that by visiting any fresh air destination the respiratory disorders couldbe significantly mitigated.
The economy has grown leaving more disposable income with agood number of people living in the metropolitan cities of India especiallyDelhi. Kashmir being around an hour flying time from Delhi also makes itfeasible for such people to take periodic breathing breaks during the weekendsas a health measure. Benefits of low-cost ticketing in advance bookings canfurther make such travel feasible and affordable. The five day week leaves twodays weekend for a number of people who could become the target segment forsuch packages. People having a flexiblework schedule can also be targeted by offering customized packages. Moreover,the commencement of night operations from Srinagar airport will further add toits scope. Since the main purpose of undertaking such tours will be breathing,thereby it will be ideal to accommodate them in such destinations, which areeco-friendly and away from the hustle and bustle. Such places may be chosenwhich are virgin tourism destinations thereby a home-stay accommodation may bepreferred which on the one side will keep the package cost low and on the otherwill increase the USP of the package besides benefitting developing economies.
The above study was substantiated by the interaction with afew tourists who had come to Kashmir. They strongly agreed with the statementthat fresh air tourism can be a significant travel motivator if people are madeto understand its importance on their well being. It was further agreed by theDelhiites that Kashmir could be chosen as a potential destination for the samebecause of it’s flying time, which is hardly 75 minutes. Tourism entrepreneursfrom Kashmir need to play a role in making people living in such places awareof these issues so that they may positively respond to their offers. Once theentrepreneurs will come up with low cost breathing tourism offers and they willbe able to generate a big market for such offers because the nature of suchtype of tourism will be frequent. This is feasible when people living inmetropolitan cities where the air quality index is bad are made conscious aboutthe potential risks of breathing such air and the benefits of periodicallytaking tours to such places where there is ample fresh air. Kashmir can be positioned to them asbreathing heaven.