Examining the role of sustainable tourism in India's GDP growth using SDG 8, SDG 12 and the tourism satellite account framework

Tourism is recognized as one of the most important sectors to develop the economy and create jobs for the countries. The objective of this study is to explore the perceived relationship between tourism expenditure, tourism receipts, tourism employment, tourism arrivals and contribution to the local economy in terms of economic growth in India taking the indicators of TSA into the SDG 8 and SDG 12 framework. An organized survey was used to gather primary data from 281 respondents who have experience both domestically and internationally. The proposed model was evaluated using partial least squares structural equation modeling and importance—performance map analysis was used to test the importance of the constructs. It is suggested by the result that the perceptions of tourism expenditure and tourism receipts positively affect tourist arrivals, which in turn are perceived to positively affect tourism''s contribution to local economic growth. But there was no opinion about the significant relationship between the tourism employment and the visitors coming to the country. The study brings out a perception based analytical framework that extends the application of the TSA and SDG and gives insights for policy makers to design sustainable, value-based tourism strategies in India.