IJMRR/ Jan 2013/ Volume 3/Issue 1/Article No-7/2204-2213 ISSN: 2249-7196 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AND REVIEW TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE IN HARYANA Vineet Kumar*1, 1Assistant Professor, University College, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India. ABSTRACT Haryana has acquired a prominent place on the tourist map of India for its outstanding contribution in promotion of tourism. The Government has set up a network of tourist complexes all over the state, which are extremely popular with the tourists. There are in all 848 rooms with 1863 beds, Convention Centers, Golf Courses, Lakes, Heritage rooms and other facilities such as Camping Sites etc. The Govt. has provided major thrust to tourism promotion in the State, so that it becomes a major engine of economic growth and a catalyst of employment generation. Present paper is an analysis of available tourism infrastructure in state. Keywords: Haryana Tourism, Infrastructure, Marketing, Analysis INTRODUCTION The culture, history, diversity and bounty of nature of Haryana has traversed the state into a prominent place of tourism, where the tourists not only from all the nook and corners of India, but from various developed, developing and under developed countries of the world pay visit. Haryana’s visitor-friendly traditions, varied life styles, cultural heritage and colourful fairs and festivals held during the year work as a source of attraction and inspiration for the tourists. The Indian handicrafts particularly, jewelry, carpets, woolen/leather goods and wooden articles are the main shopping items of foreign tourists. The estimates available through surveys indicate that nearly forty per cent of the tourist expenditure on shopping of the tourists is spent on such items. The other attractions include mountains for adventure tourism, technological parks, science museums, centres of pilgrimage for spiritual tourism; heritage sites and hotels for tourism. Yoga, Ayurvedic and natural health resorts also attract tourists forming a part of medical tourism. Though some work on the subject has been done by some researchers on the subject for various locations in the world and some states of India, but very little work has been accomplished for Haryana. An attempt has been made in this paper to study infrastructure facilities available for the tourists visiting the state. Attempt has also been made to study, how far these facilities have been availed by the visitors and the treatment they could get from the staff posted at various tourist spots. METHODOLOGY The data for the research paper was collected from both the secondary and primary sources. All the data on the infrastructure facilities available and the important highway tourist spots *Corresponding Author www.ijmrr.com 2204 IJMRR/ Jan 2013/ Volume 3/Issue 1/Article No-7/2204-2213 ISSN: 2249-7196 in the state have been collected from the various secondary sources, published and published data of the State Government, Tourism Development Corporation, Office of the Economic and Statistical advisor, Government of Haryana and District Statistical Abstracts of various years. For the collection of primary data, the list of all the highway tourist spots developed by the Tourism Development Corporation was ascertained. Three tourist spots Viz. Panchkula, Ambala and Yamuna Nagar were selected randomly for the collection of data. 120 total visitors, 40 from each location were interviewed by the researcher himself on the specially structured schedule. The data collected was tabulated and analyzed as per the objectives of the study. Simple statistical tools like mean averages and percentage were used in the analysis of data. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results obtained from the collected data have been presented have been presented in three sections viz. respondents profile, infrastructure facilities available and the respondent’s views on the treatment they could get at the tourist spots. Respondent's profile To know the background of respondents in the study area, the collected data was analysed. Table No 1: Distribution of respondent households according to marital status across sex. Males (82) Females (38) Total (120) Married Unmarried Married Unmarried Married Unmarried 62 20 28 10 90 30 It could be inferred from the table that of the total households selected, 68 percent were males and the remaining 32 percent were females. The data further revealed that in all about 75 percent were married and the remaining 25 percent were bachelors, which varied across sex of the respondents. Among the males, the percentage of married persons were 76 percent, while among the females, the percentage was 74 percent. The study of the age group of tourists revealed that majority of the tourists (54%) were in the age group of 36-45 years, the most productive and hard working stage of the people. People, who toil very hard continuously for some time, needs relaxation and as such, they move out for relaxation and get ready to work hard in the days to come followed by the visitors in the age group of 46-55 years because they also need relaxation after hard work. The young people below 25 years of age followed next and accounted for about 17 percent of the reasons. The percentage of this category was low since they have their own priorities of studies and settling in life. Only 6 percent of the visitors were in the category of above 55 years of age since they lead a retired life and work in the absence of their children they look after their work and small children. Moreover after the age of 55 years, many people are suffering with some problem or the other and advised by the doctors to avoid traveling. The study of the educational status of the tourists revealed that more than 50 percent of the total tourists were graduates (56%). Another25 percent of the tourists were either post- graduates or were high-grade technicians having technical qualifications/degrees. Only Copyright © 2012 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 2205 IJMRR/ Jan 2013/ Volume 3/Issue 1/Article No-7/2204-2213 ISSN: 2249-7196 around 19 percent were simply matriculates. It could be concluded that most of the tourists were well educated and could understand the utility of taking tours. In general, the tourists belonged to all occupation groups though the percentage varied. The data presented in table 2 reveals that 45 percent of the total tourists visiting these tourist spots were self-employed, running their own business and had a sizable income. 26 percent of the tourists had government jobs and most of them were entitled to avail Leave Travel Concession by their departments, who provided the incentive to their employees. Students was another group accounting for about 12 percent, visiting these spots on their way to various educational and study tours. Five percent of the tourists were in the tourism jobs, who had to travel daily and had to visit these spots occasionally on their way to different places in their area of operation. The percentage of retired persons visiting these was also found to be around 5 percent. Most of these persons were either retired employees from Government service drawing handsome or persons above 60 years of age from business families who have handed over to their business to their children and are leading a care free retired life. Only about 4 percent and 3 percent visitors were doing private jobs and were unemployed respectively. Table No 2: Classification of Tourist according to Occupation Status Govt. Private Self Students Unemployed Tourism Retired Jobs jobs employed Jobs person 31 5 54 14 4 6 6 The tourism industry is more or less dependent on the income of the people and availability of free time to undertake tours. It is therefore important to study the income of the people who are visiting these tourist places. The study reveals that 38 percent of the total visitors were in the income group of Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 per month and another 27 percent were having their income up to Rs 25,000. In short, 65 percent of the tourists were in the income group of up to Rs 50,000 per month. 19 percent and 13 percent of the tourists were having their income between Rs 50,000-75,000 and Rs 75,000 to Rs 1,00,000 per month respectively. Only 9 percent of the total visitors were having more than Rs 1,00,000 as their income. TOURISTS IN HARYANA The Government of Haryana has developed various tourist spots from 1980-81 to 2010-11, which facilitated at both the domestic and international tourist to visit the state. The number of domestic and international tourists, their growth rate, number of tourist spots and the change in the number of tourists over the preceding year has been presented in table 3 below: It could be observed from the table that the number of tourist spots increased from 29 in 1980-81 to 47 in 2000-2001, but decreased to 43 in 2010-11 as the tourist centers at Mussorie were closed down. Total number of tourists comprising of the foreign and domestic tourists increased from 18,08,730 in 1980-81 to 7314910 in 2009-10, showing an increase by around 285 percent. The trend showed that the number of tourists showed an increasing trend from 1980-81 to 1995-96 and increased to 72,30,152, but decreased in 2000-01 to 54,91,941, again Copyright © 2012 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 2206 IJMRR/ Jan 2013/ Volume 3/Issue 1/Article No-7/2204-2213 ISSN: 2249-7196 increased up to 2009-10, but decreased in 2010-11. The percentage share of foreign tourists in 1980-81 and 1985-86 was about 3.6 percent, which decreased to 1.9 percent in 2010-11.