Indian Heritage Tourism: Challenges of Identification and Preservation

Abstract

India possesses world’s longest continuous civilization. Its Vedas (including Ayurveda) are now worldwide recognized as treasure of knowledge. India is a vast country with second largest population. It has very rich cultural traditions. Its rich culture is reflected in the forms of its philosophy, religion, ritesrituals, festivals, languages, literature, art-architecture, music, dance etc. However, it is tragic that despite such vastness of area and richness in all types of cultural heritage, there are very few items listed in ‘World heritage list’ of UNESCO. There are several countries in the world which are smaller in size and population with newer history, but have more heritage sites. This is due to lack of identification and recognition. In India most of old monuments are in shamble condition. The citizens, administrators and policy makers are equally responsible for their pathetic condition. In India, cultural tourism has largest share. Most of inbound & domestic tourists are visiting India to see the uniqueness of Indian culture. So it is very necessary to identify the rich cultural heritage so that they can be preserved and transferred to next generation.

Keywords : Heritage, heritage tourism, preservation.

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