Chapter-3 A W A D H Recreation Resource Analysis History and Geography have worked significantly in shaping the cultural landscape of the Awadh Region. Strong religlo- cultural forces, in time and space, with queer fusion of different beliefs and faiths have given a pronounced regional identity In its linguistic homogeniety, ethnicity, religosity and rurality. The region has witnessed the birth of the Hindu god, Rama, in Ayodhya, while the Buddha haC a preference for the region and loved to -ipend much of his lifetime in and around here. The regional Importance In prehistoric period is well established (Rawlinson, 1S55; Cleemann, 1958; SpatellSb/ Sharar, 1989). The Awadh Region was glorified by the great Awadhi poet, Tuslldas, who popular-ls^-d the language nationally through his celebrated rpic 'Rari.ayan'. There 's much to the region In Its cultural heritage that needs further exploration, interpretation and identification, which can be harnessed for tourism promotion (Singh, C.) Besides rich religious heritage, Awadh presents ecological diversity to a considerable extent, particularly in the Tarai belt. This subregion, with its shades of green, supports abundant fauna and flora. It also has clusters of primitive settlements, of semi- aborigines life, preserving the 'little culture' of Tharas that grows conspicuous In Its age-old way of life, traditional mores and folk culture. With all this in the backdrop interestingly the religious 31 factor makes it a unique region, quite distinctive trom other regions of U.P.,in particular, & India in general (Sherring,1868; Purl,'66). While preserved socio-economic backwardness that plagues the region, has on one hand^ its native charms and rusticity, on the other it becomes an important reason to provide a dose of development through viable tourism which can act as a cataiyic agent for economic revitalisation and growth stimulation in the region. Since tourism is notorious for damaging scarce and vulnerable resources of culture (Doxey, 1975), it is therefore appropriate to have a systematic evaluation of the resources - their nature, Composition and degree of resilience-to fixing typology of activity and the ise pattern to safeg>ard undesirable side effects which are more often irreversible ar~^ •-reparable. It has been found that economically backward bi"t cul^iirvj (y rich areas are more succeptible to tourism induced changes, an > hence utmost care should be taken in the development of such recreational resources. This chapter Is an effort to establish recreation resource appraisal of the Awadh Region and to look closely into some of the tourist centres which have developed overtime in different resource categories. An effort has also been made to prepare a tourist profile of visitors in the Lucknow tourist zone which shall cover centres like Lucknow, Ayodhya and Oudhwa National Park. These centres of varied resources have distinct tourist personality as centres of cultural excellence, religious significance and nature-based tourism. Besides, some peripheral observations have also been made on Sravasti, the Buddhist centre which attracts visitors from within the Zone. 32 Selection of Criterion Recreation resource assessment is a complex task, beset with many constraints, as subjective, assessments may be affected by heavy personal bias, and attaining objectivity is equally difficult specially in resources that deal with aesthetics, visual appeal, behaviouristics and the like which defy quantification or precise measurement. Beauty cannot be measured by meterage or tonnage (Ferrario, 1970). May be tomorrow's computer can make it possible to scale the intangibles and airy substances. Till then we have to make-do with lesser refined tools used by other geographers and tourism scientists. In general, the attractiveness of an/ destination is made up of an array of positive ar.d negative factors (lea, 1988). These factors may include attributes of physJcaJ/cultural attractiveness, geographical access, travels, costs, infrastructural facilities, resident attitudes, and economic and political considerations. Tourism scholars have attempted to classify these attributes differently. Pierre Defert (1969) had categorised the resources as undermentioned : A. Hydrome : deals with everything which relates to water, snow, ice and mineral waters. B. Phytome : deals with terrestial elements, forests, landscape and agriculture. 33 C. Lithome : deals with all the elements built by man (viz., architecture). D. Anthropome : "man as a curiosity for man'- it deals with all varieties of civilisations, people and their habits and customs. These resources have been grouped differently by Brain Coodall (1985)- (a) climate factor (b) terrain factor (c) landscape factor (d) vegetation factor (e) biological factor (f) cultural factor. The classification adopted by Clawson and Knetsh (1963) was, indeed, a pioneering work that showed the way towards a more meaningful rr e-hoiology as their approach was based on the assumption thst participation figures are directly related, and are proportionate to the attractiveness of the products. Modifications of their work have been applied, time and again, for the purpose of resource evaluation-Gearing et ai (197U), Var et al (1977), Ferrario (1970) and Kaur (1985). The methodology formulated by Gearing and others, won willing acceptance as It proved to be a sophisticated quantitative tool for evaluating the attractiveness of a region. The classification identified seventeen factors of attractiveness represented in five major groupings. The evaluation was done by a combination of ranking and comparision proceedures. The analysis assigned quantitative weightings of relative Importance to touristicness to each of the seventeen factors. 34 Since the present study is concerned primarily with the cultural attractiveness of the Awadh Region, hence the methodology adopted by Ritchie and Zins (1978) was deemed most appropriate for application. Though their method was yet another modified version of the work pioneered by Gearing and others. It was planned and executed so as to provide a theoretical contrlbuton with respect to understanding the phenomenon of culture tourism. The final product of their findings is concerned with the identification of the elements of culture, the manner in which culture is visibly manifested and the relationships of these elements and manifestations with the overall touristicness of the destination area. Their research-work provides an empirical measure of; (I) the relative importance of eight major factors which contribute to the overall attractiveness of a tourism region. (II) the relative importance of twelve socio-cultural elements which contribute to the cultural attractiveness of a tourist region. (Ill/ The relative importance of three different forms of culture as potential contributions of the cultural attractiveness of a tourism region. The twelve socio-cultural elements adopted by Ritchie and Zins (1978), using Quebec as study area, have to be refashioned to suit the Awadh Region. It Is instructive to note that the Region has Immense potential for tourism promotion which is still unrealised and extremly wanting in basic facilities. Delving 35 for a closer look into the resource potentials is indeed a huge task requiring a multi-disciplinary team of scholars. But, since the work has been accomplished single handedly, hence the cumulative appeal of the sutdy area could not be measured in absolute terms. Nevertheless, a modest effort has been made to present a qualitative evaluation of the 'tourism market basket of goods and services {Jafari, 1979) of the Awadh Region. TABLE - 3 FACTORS INFLUENCING ATTRACTIVENESS OF TOURISM REGION Major Factors Elementary Considerations 1. NATURAL BEAUTY i) Open landscape and & CLIMATE rolling topography ji) River aspects. iii) Lakes and Kunds. iv) Flora: farmlands; Tarai belt-local forests and primitive stands. v) Fauna : popular fauna type, areas of bird and wildlife. vl) Climate : temperature, preci­ pitation, comfort/discomfort index. 36 2. SOCIO-CULTURAL i) Local language: Awadhi dialect^ CHARACTERISTICS and Lucknawi etiquettes. i i) Folksiness and attitudes towards tourist?. iii) Gastronomic practices. iv) Art and architectural features: traditional fine arts (dance, mus ic,crafts) ,1 ocal arch i tecture. v) Religious significance : pilgrim centres, rituals and religious observances. vi) Fair^s and festivals-religious/ cultural /commercial. vii) History : legends and ancient ruins, visual reminders. viii) Agriculture. 3. RECREATION AND i) Picnic grounds and reservoirs. EDUCATION FACILITIES ii) Zoos. iii) Botanical Gardens. iv) National Parks and Biosphere Reserves. Wildlife Sancturies. 4. SHOPPING AND I) Souvenirs and Gift shops, COMMERCIAL FACILITIES ii) Handicraft shops. iii ) Ethnic gastronmy. iv ) Cattle fairs. 37 5. INFRASTRUCTURE i) Surface and air transport/ distance from other important destinations. ii) Hotels, Restaurants, Motels, Bungalows. lit) Safety Services. Sources : Ritchie and Zins (1978) and Kaur (1985) Resource Analysis : An evaluation of the recreation resources of the Awadh Region is forthrightly presented. To avoid repetition, the resource attributes have been assessed In a composite manner at selected tourist centres. Consequently, the description does not strictlyadher to the criterion. Natural Beauty and CI Imate- : The entire Awadh Region is an open flatland. With the exception of the Tarai, the rest of the sub-region sprawls spaciously for acres and acres with a slight