In today world, Tourism does not merely mean a vacation, a source of entertainment, or a way of expending one’s knowledge but tourism in the recent years has emerged as one of the important social-economic sector of nation.
It is now recognized as an industry providing substantial support to the economics of country. Tourism promotes national Integration and International Understanding. It also helps in improvisation of infrastructure, creates more opportunities of employment and most importantly provides foreign exchanging.
Tourism in India plays a vital role in the country’s economic, cultural growth and unity. India’s great diversity and cultural richness provides ample potential for growth in tourism. The rice heritage of art , architecture, pre-history spots, places of historical importance, picturesque palaces, mesmerizing deserts, lush green valley, snow peaked mountains, mysterious etc all speak of infinite possibility of India becoming a favourite tourist destination.
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The basic reason behind the increase or development of tourism in India is religion place of pilgrimage attract local as well as foreign tourist year after year. Moreover, travelling and tour is now not only confined to religion place and religious feeling but it has now become a pleasure trip too. Due to this reason domestic tourism is on the rise since the last decade or two. Rise in economic statues of an average middle class family, exposure through mass media increasing awareness promote tourism. Better income and good incentives provided by private organizations to their outstanding workers have also contributed to harnessing tourism potential of the country.
One of the most favourable aspect of tourism is that it creation more job opportunities and has great potential for employment in the wake of its rise. Presently, about 8.5 million people are directly employed in this field which is about 2.4% of total employed people of India. In addition to this the industry provides indirect employment to about another 20 million people. A noticeable thing in that the tourism industry employs a large number of women; educated, uneducated, skilled as well as unskilled. Women are employed in hostel and airline Service, travel agencies, handicraft and culture activities. Hostel from an important part of the tourism industry. The Department of Tourism classified hotels along the line of a system beginning from one to five star hotels .Another category that has been recently introduction of Heritage Hotels. This series has been introduction to cover palaces, havelies, castles, forts and grand residential place built before 1950 which have been converted into hotels while preserving the original taste of the place to help the foreign tourist get a glimpse of the most sought after India Culture.
There are various tourist destinations in India including place with historical and archaeological importance, religious place, wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, hill station, sea beaches and deserts. The lofty Himalayas are still a favourite destination in the country with its breathtaking snow-clad peaks, waterfall, rivers, forest and wild life .For adventurous ones, the ranges also provide opportunities for hiking and trekking as well. Srinagar, Gulamarg, Pahalgaon, Patnitop, Amarnath, Vasshno Devi, Sonmarg, Leh etc are important tourist places in Kashmir while shimla, Dalhousis, Kullu Manali, Kasauli are centers of tourism in Himachal Pradesh . Uttar Pradesh Have abundance of pilgrimage like Haridwar, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Rishikesh, Mathura, Allahabad, Varanasi, Vrindaban, Lucknow, Agra etc along with a few hill stations. Dargeling, Gangtok, Shillong, Kohima, Imphal, Alzawal and Agartala are a few famous tourist spots in the north-eastern states.
Besides, there are places of historical or religious importance in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Delhi etc. Rajasthan is not only famous for its forts and palaces but also attracts tourist due to the hunting beauty of its desert. Jaisalmer, Jodhapur and bikner together form the famous desert triangle. Amritser, Jalandhar, Ludhina, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Foridabad, Surajkund (due to its annual crafts fair), Delhi, of course along with Chandigarh, Famous For its Rock garden are common tourist haunts. Delhi, Agra and jaipur form the world famous Golden Triangle.
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In the peninsular India , States like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala , Daman and Diu, etc., are all tempting to domestic as well as foreign tourist. The island of Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshadweep too are major tourist attraction. Thus, India has great tourist possibilities which can be exploited further to mark it make it a good revenue earning sector of the India Economic.
Despite the great potential of India as a favourite tourism place, the growth of the tourism industries has been very slow. This is mainly due to poor infer-structure in the form of roads, railways, airport, sea-port, tele-communication, hotels, accommodations and other allied services. Another factor which adversely affects tourism in India is a lack of proper propaganda and advertisement. India’s inability to sell tourist potential effectively in an attractive, cost-effective and desired package is a major drawback. Violence in some parts of the country too has affected the number of tourists in the country. These few drawbacks have made India Tourism fall behind the tourism sectors of smaller countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong Singapore Maldives etc.