A Study of Pilgrims and the Facilities Provided at Pilgrimage Center Velankanni District Nagpattanam, State of Tamilnadu, India

Tourism is one of the important activities of human being which deals at every stage. If the required facilities are provided to the tourist at reasonable cost they may be satisfied. It helps to bind the different class of people based on cast, race and religion; hence tourism is a double sized weapon of both blessings and blight. Hence, it is a socio-economic phenomenon, which has involved into one of the largest and fastest growing industries of the world. Now-a-days tourist places and pilgrimage places are the main attractions of the people; People visit the places of worship and sacred shrines, for different reason such as entertainment, holiness, blessing etc. In India so many pilgrimage centers of all faith are found everywhere, it is part of religion. Religion shows influence on cultural landscape as religion is vital part of culture; such landscapes are called as scared landscape or holy places. Religious landscape is varied ranging from houses of worship to cemeteries, way side shrines and place names etc. Pilgrimages place also one of them as religious point of view. It reflects a culture of their religion, for religion travel is necessary part of getting from home to the pilgrimage destination. At the pilgrimage destination accommodation, food, drinking water, cleanliness, medical facilities and parking facilities are provided pilgrims would be happy. In this paper the attempt has been made to review the facilities provided to pilgrims throughout the year and especially during the annual feast. For the study Velankanni village has selected because this place is very famous as a pilgrimage center in south India. Velankanni has one of the biggest and famous Catholic pilgrimage centers in India, the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health; it is devoted to Our Lady of Good Health.