Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
were identifi ed during the period of fi eldwork:
leisure tourists, business tourists and pilgrims.
However, owing to constraints of time, fi eld-
work was conducted mainly with one group -
the leisure tourists, who will be the focus of
discussion.
Regarding the gaze of the modern leisure
tourist, expectations are to a large extent 'condi-
tioned' by Web descriptions of hill stations as
this source of information is widely available in
India. Over 70% (51 visitors) of the 72 Indian
leisure tourists to the hills interviewed in Decem-
ber 2007 claimed to have used the Web to learn
more about Ooty and Yercaud. Although each
hill station is different, they still share many sim-
ilarities, and Web images tend to highlight com-
mon features of scenic beauty such as the lake,
the Anglican church, cottages with their gardens
and hedges, a range of local picnic spots, water-
falls, wildlife, sites with panoramic views from
the hills, tours of tea gardens and coffee estates
and particular features such as the Botanical
Gardens in Ooty, the Nilgiri railway, and above
Yercaud, the Shevarayan temple. According to
OotyIndia.com (2008), visitors are attracted to
hill stations because
they not only offer respite from the dust and
pollution of the city but also give people a
chance to see the undefi led beauty of nature.
The green hills, the cascading waterfalls and
sparkling brooks all make the hill stations a
delight for the eyes of the city-weary.
(Available at
http://www.ootyindia.com/
As many of the leisure tourists to the hills are
middle-class Indians (Table 1.2), and as the
gaze is constructed partly by the contrast with
their non-tourist daily lives, I digress now to
consider the nature of the working lives of
professional middle-class Indians. The charac-
teristics of employment in corporate industry,
including the IT sector and major Indian com-
panies operating call centres, are of particular
interest, as these are the types of employers
included in the sample of tourists in the hills.
It would seem that growing affl uence of the
middle classes has come at a price: long hours
of work, which increasingly absorb not only
men but women too, are bringing about changes
in social structures. Women are drawing increas-
ingly on the service of others to look after their
children while they work, and respondents, par-
ticularly younger women, talked about the
problems of balancing the demands of family
and work (Radhakrishnan, 2008). Pressure at
work and a sedentary lifestyle are trapping
many who are succumbing to a range of ill-
nesses, including 'lifestyle diseases', defi ned as
coronary heart disease, cancers and diabetes.
In addition, there have been growing reports of
weight problems, depression and family break-
down among the middle classes (Mehdi, 2007).
Though there may be many who are satisfi ed
with their jobs and especially with their incomes
(author's fi eldwork), the pressures at work,
which are increasingly being documented, pro-
vide a good basis from which to construct the
perceived tourist gaze (Mahapatra, 2007).
Advertisements for virtually every Indian
hill station cited on the Web highlight the seren-
ity, calmness and physical beauty of the envi-
ronment, and almost every single respondent
Table 1.2.
Employment of sample of leisure tourists in Ooty and Yercaud, December 2007.
Nature of employment
Ooty (total)
Ooty (women)
Yercaud (total)
Yercaud (women)
IT industries
8
3
6
3
Managers
4
-
3
-
Business
5
-
4
-
Call centres
3
3
4
2
Doctors
4
2
3
1
Lawyers
4
1
4
1
Retired
5
3
6
2
Housewife
4
4
5
5
Total
37
35
Source: author's fi eldwork, December 2006, 2007.
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