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Kashmir, a politically sensitive region of the newly created union territory of India, is an attractive destination for tourists worldwide and is branded as "Heaven on Earth." The existing research on tourism in Kashmir is centred on tourists and their well-being. Studies on the local communities are almost absent for the region even though it is an indispensable part of sustainable tourism. The present work is an attempt to analyse the factors that determine support for tourism by local residents in the Kashmir region. The primary data has been collected through questionnaire method from local residents of Pahalgam and Gulmarg, two top tourist destinations in the Kashmir region. PLS-SEM is applied for data analysis. Results revealed that economic benefits, economic costs, social costs, environmental benefits, political trust, and state of local economy had effects on the support for tourism development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage is an important part of the international tourism market. As wiThany resource, sustainable management practices are required to maintain the long-term value of heritage assets. It is claimed that sustainable heritage tourism provides quality experiences for the tourists while protecting the environment and improving the quality of life for local residents. Yet, irrespective of how tourism is introduced and developed in a community, residents' perceptions of heritage tourism benefits are the key to the success or failure of the local tourism industry. This paper deals wiThheritage tourism in the village of Pragpur in Himachal Pradesh, India which is popular for its ancient heritage and culture and is registered in the list of heritage sites in India. Thus, the purpose of this study was twofold: to investigate residents' perceived benefits of heritage; and to assess the residents' support for sustainable heritage tourism development. A questionnaire was designed for this research and various related literature were used to develop the items for questions. A factor analysis was performed to derive four exogenous constructs dealing wiThsocio-cultural, environmental, economic benefits and heritage benefits. Significant differences have been found on the basis of perceived benefits and support for heritage tourism development. The implications for tourism practitioners, academicians and local community are discussed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]