Introduction: The early history of tourism says people traveled from one place to another mainly because of food , shelter or just for curiosity. But in due course large scale mobility of people were caused by the natural elements of human pressure, entertainment or forced man to move to other location. Due to the absence of roads and other transport facilities, travel and tourism was a hard way to think of. This led to the emergence of  land routes , river or sea navigation.

 Now with dismantling of national boundaries, the tourism scenario is also changing. There is a steady growth in the number of tourist arrivals and more satisfactorily the average spending of foreign tourist has gone up.

Tourism Product:   In the earth today any thing can be promoted as the tourism product anywhere.. It is not location specific as the agriculture and manufacturing sector do. India in particular has a 5000-year –old heritage and thousands of monuments and archeological sites for the tourists to enjoy. The country abounds in attractive and well preserves historical sites and ancient monuments of architectural grandeur. India offers enormous diversity in topography, natural resources and climate. There are land- rocked mountainous regions, lush valleys and plains, arid desert regions, white sandy beaches and islands. Central India has numerous wildlife sanctuaries with countless varieties of flora and fauna. The country has unparallel cultural diversity, languages, religions, customs and traditions.

  The major adventure tourism activities are trekking, and skiing in the Himalayas, river running in the Gangas, water sports in Goa, trout fishing in the Himachal Pradesh and many more. We have some of the best beaches of the world, many of which are still unexplored in Andaman and Lakshadweep islands.

Tourism Contribution: The impact of tourism in our country is multi dimensional. It is reflected on the economic, social, cultural, political and environmental issues and aspects of the country. In a more generic sense it develops understanding among the people, create jobs both directly and indirectly, augments foreign exchange reserves and helps in the overall economic wellbeing of the people.

Earnings from foreign tourist arrivals had grown strongly in the nineties and contributed to over Rs21,828 crores a year in the recent past.  According to the World Tourism and Travel Council (WTTC) the industry provides direct employment to 262 million people who constitute 10.5% of the global workforce. These numbers are expected to grow to 383 million by the year 2007. Tourism also accounts for 8% of the world exports making it the largest internationally traded products or services.

Tourism in Global View:  Tourism is the largest industry in the world next to the oil industry. In terms of earnings it has left automobiles and information technology industry behind. Tourism is the largest employer.

Table-1

Growth of International Tourists from 1948 to 2004

Sl No

Year

No. of Tourists

(in million)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9
1948

1964

1990

1996

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

14.0

144.0

458.5

591.9

687.3

684.1

702.6

694.0

760.0
Source: 1. WTO Statistics- Published in Tourism and Travel Management, p. 64.

             2. India : Tourism and heritage Challenge, Communiqué: a Journal of Confederation of Indian Institutes, November 2001,p.3
The table shows that the [...]