importance of
tourism in J and K in about 200 words
Answers
The practice of holiday-making away from one’s normal place of residence is known as tourism. Tourists are defined as people visiting a place other than that in which they normally reside, for a period including an overnight stay, for any reason other than following an occupation remunerated in the place visited.
This operational definition, therefore, includes certain people travelling for reasons other than holiday-making, (e.g., conference participants, pilgrims) but it is normally impracticable to exclude them when data are collected. The distinction between Recreation and Tourism is that recreation involves leisure activities of less than 24 hours’ duration away from home, whereas tourism involves a longer time scale and therefore, requires more infrastructure in the form of accommodation provision.
The International Association of Scientific Experts on Tourism (AIEST) has defined tourism as the sum of phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, in so far as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity. The essence of the tourist economy is that the tourist spends, in the chosen holiday area, money that has been earned elsewhere.
Charistaller (1964) has pointed out that tourism is a very important free-market agent of the spatial redistribution of wealth. In any economy, tourism acts as an export sector, bringing money into the area, setting up both income multipliers creating jobs.
The history of tourism is as old as the human society itself. The early tourism can be traced from the period when man set sail and attempted to know the immediate world around. His inherent zeal for enchanted unknown lands and curiosity for new world culminated into early travels.
At the start of the present century, travel and tourism were confined only to affluent few, i.e., rich, religious zealots, conquerors, the well educated and the elites who were fascinated by the enchanting beauty and mysteries of unknown land. Tourism has, however, grown from the pursuits of a privileged few to a mass movement of people; with the urge to discover the unknown places and to seek change in environment and to undergo new experiences.
The dramatic transformation of rudimentary tourism into a giant phenomenon has resulted from a set of physico, socio-economic, political, psychological and aesthetic factors. Modern tourism upsurged after the Second World War commencing with a spurt in human mobility and intensive application of mechanization. In the ending part of the 18th century, industrialization resulted into commercialism and urbanization.
Consequently, the standard of living of the people went up and there was a concomitant rise in leisure hours compelling people to adopt travel and recreation as an inevitable lifestyle. Also, within a short span, human members increased tremendously particularly in the urban centres. All these factors culminated into ushering a new wave of migration, typically termed as ‘Mass Tourism’.
At present, touring and outdoor recreation have become a genuine social, economic and psychological need, not for individuals alone but also for our entire society and economy. Tourism development holds immense appeal because of anticipated economic benefits of income and employment. In terms of employment, it is the largest industry that provides jobs to about one in every 16 workers worldwide. It helps in removing the regional disparities, particularly in underdeveloped and backward areas.
Kashmir is one of the most beautiful tourist destinations of the world. It used to attract enormous number of domestic and international tourists before 1989. The period between 1989 and 1998 is a lean period from the tourists point of view.
The unstable political situation of the state, the militancy and slogan of Azadi (independence) discouraged the tourists and recreation-seekers. Tourism, however, is a dominant economic activity in the state. Moreover, about 20 per cent of the workforce of the state is directly or indirectly dependent on tourism.
After agriculture, tourism is the main economic activity in the state. The Jammu and Kashmir state is quite rich in renewable resources (water, forest and fresh air) and scenic beauty. Its lush green forests, rich wildlife, snow-clad peaks, mountainous gorges, giant glaciers, rich fishing grounds, lofty skiing grounds, carpet green turfs, perennial rivers, gushing fountains, floating gardens in Dal Lake, hissing springs, cool breeze, shimmering lakes, invigorating climate, apple-almond orchards, saffron fields and benevolent and kind hearted folk are well known all over the word. In the absence of basic mineral (iron-ore, copper, coal, petroleum, etc.), its productive fields, valuable forests, water and invigorating climate are the great bounties of nature.