who is responsible for tourism in India, in states? mention few reasons for tourism in india.
Answers
Tourism in India is economically important and is growing rapidly. The World Travel & Tourism Council calculated that tourism generated ₹8.31 lakh crore (US$120 billion) or 6.3% of the nation's GDP in 2015 and supported 37.315 million jobs, 8.7% of its total employment. The sector is predicted to grow at an average annual rate of 7.5% to ₹18.36 lakh crore (US$270 billion) by 2025 (7.2% of GDP).[1] In October 2015, India's medical tourism sector was estimated to be worth US$3 billion. It is projected to grow to $7–8 billion by 2020.[2] In 2014, 184,298 foreign patients traveled to India to seek medical treatment.[3]
About 8.02 million foreign tourists arrived in India in 2015 recording a growth rate of 4.4%, compared to 7.68 million in 2014 with a growth rate of 10.2% over 2013.[4] Domestic tourist visits to all states and Union Territories numbered 1,036.35 million in 2012, an increase of 16.5% from 2011.[5] In 2014, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh were the most popular states for tourists.[6] Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Agra have been the four most visited cities of India by foreign tourists during the year 2011. Worldwide, Chennai is ranked 38 by the number of foreign tourists, while Mumbai is ranked at 50, Delhi at 52 and Agra at 66 and Kolkata at 99.[7]
The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2015 ranks India 52nd out of 141 countries overall. The report ranks the price competitiveness of India's tourism sector 8th out of 141 countries. It mentions that India has quite good air transport (ranked 35th), particularly given the country’s stage of development, and reasonable ground transport infrastructure (ranked 50th). The country also scores high on natural and cultural resources (ranked 12th).[8] Some other aspects of its tourism infrastructure remain somewhat underdeveloped however. The nation has very few hotel rooms per capita by international comparison and lowATM penetration.[9] The World Tourism Organization reported that India's receipts from tourism during 2012 ranked 16th in the world, and 7th among Asian and Pacific countries.[10]
11 reasons why India is a great destination for Cultural Tourism1) Yoga: Yoga traces its origin to the six systems of philosophy mentioned the Vedic texts. It has seen a great revival of late and is seen in the huge amount of interest it has generated across the world. India has numerous places which teach Yoga in every form - Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Kriya Yoga etc. The best place to learn Yoga would be India
2) Ayurveda : This ancient system of medicine was largely ignored in the past. But with increasing awareness about the side effects of allopathic system of medicine, people have started adopting it large numbers. The southern state of Kerala has got premier institutions who have been practising Ayurveda for centuries like the Kotakkal Arya Vaidhyasala which treats patients across the globe.
3)Ancient Libraries: This one is largely unexplored but has enormous potential. With a civilization dating back to thousands of years, India has produced books on almost everytopic in the world in almost all its languages. Some of the prominent oriental libraries to mention a few are
Khudha Bakhsh Oriental Library, PatnaBhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, PuneSaraswathi Mahal Oriental Library, Thanjavur
4)Temples: We are not talking about the famous ones or the religious ones here. There are quite a lot of unknown temples which even most of the Indians are not aware of. From majestic temples such as Gangaikonda Cholapuram in South India to Undersea Nishkalank Mahadev temple in Gujarat to Color changing Ksheer Bhavani in Kashmir, it would take years, if not decades for someone to explore even a part of it.