TOURISM

Making a holiday involving an overnight stay away from the normal place of residence is known as tourism. This is in contrast to recreation which involves leisure activities lasting less than twenty-four hours. This holiday may be based on cultural, historic, and social attractions of an urban centre, or on the appeal of different environment.

Tourism is based on the tertiary sector, providing services to the tourists. It is one of the most important emerging industry of India. Tourism in India is an important foreign exchange earner. Tourism not only fetches foreign exchange, it has great potential to provide employment to the trained, skilled, and unskilled workers. Tourism is recognised as a powerful engine for economic, gr owth and employment generating in the country. The contribution of tourism to the country’s GDP and total jobs was 5.92 per cent and 9.24 per cent respectively during 2007-08. More importantly, tourism frames massive and continuous flows of people to more and more places of the country which ultimately leads to national integration and promotes international brotherhood.

India, a place of infinite variety, is fascinating with its ancient and complex culture, dazzling contrasts, and breathtaking physical beauty. Tourism in India is growing fast because of its cultural exuberance, and physical diversity. In fact, India is a vast country of great natural beauty and cultural diversity. India has a rich cultural heritage as superbly manifest in many of the architectural wonders like tombs, forts, palaces, temples, mosques, etc. With the great potential available and the development initiatives taken by the government, inbound tourism has shown a substantial growth in the last two decades. In terms of visitors, at present, India is the 10th among Asia-Pacific countries. India’s share in international tourist arrival was 5.6 million in 2010, constituting only 0.50% of the world tourists. The World Travel and Tourism Council has identified India as one of the foremost growth centres in the world in the coming decades. Domestic tourism is estimated to be much higher than that of international tourism which has been rising rapidly.