An Empirical Study of Tourism in India

Abstract

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. It plays a major role in the growth of an economy as it generates large scale employment and is also a large foreign exchange earner in the country after jewellery and ready-made garments. Tourism carries the picture of our culture and hospitality. It is because of the tourism sector, India has gained brand image in the minds of the foreign tourists. The study is undertaken to analyze the tourist attractions in India; make a year wise analysis of tourist visits to India; assess the share of the top ten states in the Domestic Tourists Visits and Foreign Tourists Visits and to assess the contribution of tourism in the Foreign Exchange Earnings. India has a geographical diversity, which resulted in a variety of nature tourism like forests, waterfalls, Western Ghats, hill stations, lakes, wildlife reserves, deserts, beaches etc. Indias rich history and its cultural and geographical diversity make its international tourism appeal large and diverse. It presents heritage and cultural tourism along with medical, business and sports tourism. The growth rate in domestic tourists is higher than that of the foreign tourists visits and as well as that of the total tourists visits. Some of the recent initiatives taken by the Government to accelerate tourism include grant of export house status to the tourism sector and incentives for promoting private investment in the form of income tax exemptions, interest subsidy and reduced import duty. The Ministry of Tourism efforts to increase the influx of tourists to the country is likely to see a positive result in the coming years. Its campaigns such as "Safe and Honourable Tourism" will increase the image of India as a safe destination, and thereby increase the consumer confidence in choosing India for a holiday.

Keywords: Tourism, Domestic Tourism, Domestic Tourist, Foreign Tourist

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