Abstract:
People visiting a place as a tourist intensively used t he urban places, its
facilities and services, but usually these facilities, spaces and services were
not designed specifically for tourists‟ use. Such places, where the main income
generation is tourism, they should be highlighted as tourist-friendly places as
walkable tourism would intensify the tourist magnets and the focal elements
which would increase the place attachment. In view of the lack of concern as to
how to provide quality and memorable walking experience for visitors, this
thesis study the routes used by tourists and identifies the issues in regards to
walkability and the pedestrians‟ experience of tourism places in the city of
Udaipur, Rajasthan. Udaipur, a peaceful and relatively small city, having only a
population of approximately 4.5 lakhs is world renowned as the „city of lakes
and palaces‟ and „Venice of the east‟ and is one of the leading tourist
attraction in Rajasthan with the tourist season starting by August and
lasting until March offering palaces, museums, parks and market areas.
A place, as defined by Southworth (2005) is walkable when “the built
environment supports and encourages walking by providing for the pedestrians‟
comfort and safety, connecting people with varied destinations within a
reasonable amount of time and effort, and offering visual interest in the journey
throughout the network”. It also brings life to streets by depicting elements of
tourists‟ interest, temporary distraction and rest and at the same time livable
streets contribute to safer urban environments. This walkability factor plays an
important role to support pedestrian activity, comfort and meaningful experience
for visitors and also there should be an understanding on how visitors actually
use the city.
The research aim is to create a plan for development of pedestrian network with
focus on Tourist in the city of Udaipur by identifying the various routes used by
tourists to reach the tourist destination and documenting the current scenario of
the walkability parameters and heritage parameters for the identified routes
and prepare a plan of intervention for introducing the required facilities will
be carried out, which will ultimately reduce the tourist accident rates.
