An empirical analysis of pilgrimage tourism in Jammu and Kashmir

This study aims at to find out the factors which are purely responsible for the growth, development and sustainability of Tourism Industry of Jammu and Kashmir with special reference to Pilgrimage Tourism. Study uses both primary and secondary data, consisting of 26 different categories of responses from the respondents. Principal Component and Factor Analysis has been used to derive the important factors affecting the growth and development of the pilgrimage tourism. The empirical analysis reveals that eight factors came out to be significantly affecting the pilgrimage tourism in Jammu and Kashmir. Among them, provision of Private facilities came out to be the most significant followed by Public facilities and accommodation facilities. The other five factors which affecting Pilgrimage Tourism, directly or indirectly, were Market infrastructure, Hygiene and Banking infrastructure, Medical and Telecommunication infrastructure, Transport infrastructure and Security and Information and Publicity. Furthermore, the study also shows that there is an urgent need for well-planned strategy by all the stakeholders of the tourism industry of the state.