Rural Tourism, Income and Rapid Urbanization: Exploring the Nexus Using A Multi-Disciplinary Approach for Hunza, Pakistan

Serving the purpose of an early warning, this paper provides a multidisciplinary analysis of how the changing dynamics of tourist arrivals can lead to rapid and unplanned urbanization. The improvements in infrastructure and communication systems under the aegis of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Gilgit Baltistan have led to exponential increase in tourists arrival in the recent years. Does this trend lead to increase in incomes and spurring an unplanned and rapid urbanization? To examine this question, we take District Hunza as a case study on the basis of evidence suggesting that around 70 percent of total tourists to Gilgit-Baltistan visit Hunza. To explore the relationship between tourists arrival and rapid urbanization, three types of data were used: survey data collected via questionnaires, secondary data from government sources, and Google images, Landsat 7 and Landsat 8 from remotely sensed data. Using cross tabulations, this study suggests that tourists arrival led to increase in incomes, which were then spent on building commercial infrastructure. To cross check these results, land use land change study using GIS mapping was conducted for the last ten years period. It shows that rapid and unplanned urbanization has profound social and environmental implications for Hunza, if not managed properly and timely.