Mass Media and Film Induced Tourism in Leh District, Jammu and Kashmir, India

The mid 1970s were beginning of tourism sector in Ladakh when it was partially opened for tourism in 1974. Major pull factors were adventure tourism, buddhist culture and research significance, mostly cultural research, especially among international visitors before the advent of bollywood film induced, meteoric domestic tourism rise. This phenomenon is bringing long term prosperity and improving the destination image among nationals. The breakthrough was success of bollywood film 3 idiots which highlighted natural beauty and serenity of the place through its storyline, eventually surpassing the number of Indian tourists manifold in comparison to foreigners which dominated in earlier decades.