Tourism
Introduction: Tourism is the practice of travelling for pleasure especially on one’s holidays. It is an organized journey during which several places are visited.
Importance of Tourism
Tourism is one of the major source of foreign exchange. Tourism is not merely a business for providing pleasure and rest. It has now grown into a big industry. Every year thousands of foreigners come to India as a result of which we earn a lot of foreign exchange.
Tourism Industry creates employment and contributes towards improving the economy. Tourism has caused the growth of travel agencies and tour operators, establishment of hotels and guest houses, restaurants and eating houses, making of luxury coaches and vehicles, and introduction of super-luxury trains and airways. It has also encouraged the revival and modernization. Of many small-scale cottage industries whose artisans and craftsmen have now flooded the market with innumerable gift items and curios. It its own way tourism is thus trying to solve a part of our vast unemployment problem.
Tours and holidays are the necessities of modern busy life. Gone are our peaceful and leisurely ways of life. Instead we have now to lead a busy and hurried life. in our daily life, we have to work very hard while discharging our duties and responsibilities. We also have to respond to various calls coming from home and outside. After performing all these we feel very tired and find that all our strength and energy has drained out. If it continues for a long time we fall a prey to complex physical and mental illness. Now nothing can replenish our lost energy so quickly and comfortably as tourism. We realize that the benefits of tourism are much more than what we pay for it.
Motives/Purposes behind of Tourism
Tourism serves some purposes such as:
- It causes us to go to near or distant places, to see things with our eyes, and to fulfill our curiosity.
- It satisfies our hunger for natural-beauty. A beautiful mountain scene, a lovely beach, or an exquisite sculptural work, casts an irresistible charm on our mind, and tourism lets us enjoy it to the full.
- It makes us tolerant and broadminded so as to appreciate different people, their speech and dress, their manners and customs, their social and economic conditions.
- It encourages intercultural contacts and intercultural activities.
Major Tourist Spots in India
There are a few countries which can compete with India in respect of worth-seeding tourists’ spots.
Hill stations: India has such hill stations as Darjeeling, Shillong, Gangtok, Manali, Shimla and Kashmir, Ooty and Panchmari.
Sea beaches: India has magnificent sea beaches at Puri and Pandicherri, Kovalam and Goa.
Architectural beauty: Sculptural marvels like the Taj Mahal, Khajuraho and Konark, temples like Meenakshi and Kanyakumari, caves liked Ajanta and Ellora, forts like Agra and Lalkilla.
Forests: Forests like the Sunderbans, and sanctuaries like Kaziranga and Jaldapara, are important tourist destinations.
Religious places: Places of worship like Sringeri Math and Vaishno Devi for the Hindus, Pawapuri and Dilwara for the Jains, and Jama Masjid and Khaja Baba Mosque for the Muslims,.
Metropolitan cities: Metropolitan cities liked Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai add to the unending list of her marvelous tourist spots.
