Suman Kumar

Cultural Tourism in India When we think of tourism of India, it stands out to be one of the richest and wealthiest because there are so many places to explore that people not only from India but of abroad also get attracted towards it. Tourism has always been an important sector that played a great role in increasing income of a country. Many countries earn a great income out of their special attraction places. Similarly when we say “cultural tourism” it is a combination of various intellectual, spiritual and emotional characters of society. It does not only contain art and living but also various modes of life, human values, traditional beliefs and many more. Types of tourism There are mainly two forms of tourism i. Domestic tourism: In this people living in the country travels within the country. ii. Inbound Tourism: In this, the person living in one country travels and explores other countries apart from their own. Thus cultural tourism basically means exploring the different traditions, culture, art, museum, history, values etc of the country. India is ranked in top 10 places of tourist destination by Conde Nast. The top 10 states most visited by tourists are: 1. Andhra Pradesh 2. Karnataka 3. Madhya Pradesh 4. Rajasthan 5. Uttarakhand 6. West Bengal 7. Gujrat 8. Uttar Pradesh 9. Tamil Nadu 10. Maharashtra The above are the top 10 states which are mostly explored by tourist coming to India or stay in India but the next big question is what cultural attraction attracts them the most? Archaeology and magnificent history of India: There are many famous archaeological and historic monuments that draw attraction of a large number of tourists. Monuments like taj mahal, Charminar, India Gate, the gateway of India, Ajanta cave and many more attracts tourist from all over the world. Festivals: In India, there are people belonging to different religion thus they tend to celebrate different festivals according to their values and customs. Some most popular festivals of India that attracts tourist are Durga Puja, Christmas, Buddha Jayanti, Moharram, Baisakhi, Pongal, Diwali and many more. Art and craft: Apart from festivals, monuments and archaeology India is very famous for its cultural glory in art and craft. One can easily explore the art and craft of ancient period, independence period, later Vedic period and many more. Thus visit of any tourist weather from India or outside exploring the culture of India is a cultural tourism for them. The tourism of India is growing day by day and is also becoming a source of employment, economic and social growth of the country. With daily tourist increase in India, the chance of restoring and saving our old heritage is now being possible. Thus tourism plays a great role for any country in the context of economic progress, infrastructural development, social progress, building and conservation of cultural heritage and safeguarding the history of India. It is necessary to maintain the heritage of India because that is the only thing which attracts tourist from all over the world and that makes them curious to pay a visit to India.