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6. Adventure Tourism
India has enormous potential for adventure tourism. For example: (i) river rafting and kayaking in Himalayas, (ii) mountain climbing in Himalayas, (iii) rock climbing, (iv) skiing in Gulmarg and Auli, (v) boat racing in Kerala, (vi) paragliding in Maharashtra, etc.
Tourism in India has great relevance to regional economic development. Since Independence, Indian tourism, especially the number of foreign tourists, has grown considerably as given in Table 11.9.
Year | Number of Foreign tourists |
1951 | 16,830 |
1961 | 140,000 |
1971 | 301,000 |
1981 | 1,280,000 |
1991 | 1,670,000 |
2001 | 2,540,000 |
2010 | 5,580,000 |
Source: India 2012, p. 147
It may be observed from Table 11.9 that in 1951 the total number of foreign tourists was only 16,830 which grew to 2,450,000 in 2006, an increase of more than about 150 times. Most of the foreign tourists who visited India were from West European countries (30%), South Asia (26%), North America (20%), South East Asia (6°/o), East Asia (5%), West Asia (4%), Africa (4%), Australia (3%), and East-European countries (2%).