An Empirical Analysis of the Tourism Sector of India

The Indian Tourism industry has played a key catalyst role in the socio-economic transformation of the country, contributing in several ways to augmenting the process of development of tourism networks reaching far and wide. Having had the luxury of a beautiful topography blessed with rich geographical areas abound in spectacular landscapes encompassing mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, waterfalls and seashores ,India is naturally decorated as a tourism hotspot to reckon with. India is earning a good deal of foreign exchange from tourism as far as available statistics suggests. It works up to 9 Percent of the GDP of the country. The polynomial projections also suggest a remarkable rise in the ensuing years as it is projected to touch US$33500 Million in 2020. Maharashtra accounts for the maximum number of foreign tourist arrivals while the maximum number of domestic tourists moves to Tamilnadu.On the whole all the respective states under both categories are attractive tourist destinations for foreign as well as domestic travellers. The tourism industry of India has immense potential to reap economic benefits, if this precious fruitful resource is utilized effectively and efficiently. There are, however, areas of concern such as lack of good quality tourism infrastructure, health and safety of tourists, disparate passenger/road tax structures and shortfall of adequately trained and skilled manpower.