“MASS TOURISM DEMANDS FOR INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA”: ISSUES, PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES TO PROMOTE WORLD HERITAGE SITES

Accommodation, transport and facilities are key components of a major tourism destination. India has vast geographical area with 32 natural and cultural world heritage sites spread across the country. These heritage sites at different locations within the country connected through different mode of transportation and build various facilities for the tourist, and are provided essential amenities. Due to importance of world heritage sites, management of mass tourism and associated infrastructure development should be taken deeply into consideration. Mass tourism demand heavy consumption of tourism products and services with highly standardize quality of product. There are many challenges to develop tourism infrastructure around the World Heritage Sites in India. Today tourism is largest service industry in India, with a contribution of 6.23% to the national GDP and providing 8.78% of total employment. India witnesses more than 5 million annual foreign tourist arrivals and 562 million domestic tourism visitors. The Ministry of Tourism is the nodal agency for the development and promotion of tourism in India and maintains the “Incredible India” campaign. Various challenges and issue faced by the travel and tourism industry in India are lack of infrastructure, human resource, service qualities, marketing and promotion for the destinations, taxation structure for the tourism industry, security of visitors, and local and national regulatory issues.