Introduction

Introduction : "Tourism is the totality of the relationship and phenomenon arising from the travel and stay of strangers, provided the stay does not simply the establishment of a permanent residence and is not connected with remunerated activity. " - Hunzikar and krapf "Tourism is sum of the relations and services connected with a temporary and voluntary change of residence for non - commercial and non - professional reasons." - Bernecker Tourism is the temporary short - term movement of people to destinations outside the places where they normally live and work and includes the activities they indulge in at the destination as well as all facilities and services especially created to meet their needs. Tourism does not only mean travelling to a particular destination but also includes day visit and excursions. Travel and tourism has been one of the dynamic, economic, and social activities. Globalisation and liberalisation has set the wheels of of the hospitality and tourism industry into motion and the last few years have been the phenomenal growth of this industry. International arrivals of tourist to various tourist destinations have increased more than five percent since 1950. Tourism has emerged in this decade as a central pillar of the services economy, and it can uniquely help societies respond global challenges, if it's growth is managed easily with an emphasis on environmental ethics. Since tourism is a multi - dimensional activity and basically a service industry, private sector and voluntary organisations become active partners in the endeavour to attain sustainable growth and development of tourism. Tourism has been an integral part of of Indian culture and tradition. Tourism development in India has gone through many phases. As government levels the development of tourist facilities was taken up in a planned manner in 1956 coinciding with the second five year plan. The approach has evolved from isolated planning of single unit facilities in the second and third five year plans. The sixth plan marked the beginning of a new era when tourism began to be considered a major instrument for social integration and economic development. It was only after 19 80's that tourism activity grained momentum in India. Due to the government's efforts like introduction of A National Policy on tourism in 1982, later in 1988, National Committee On Tourism formulated, 1992, A National Acton Plan was prepared and in 1996 the National Strategy for promotion of tourism was also drafted. For the growth and development of tourism firstly the focus need to be given in the fields like firstly to increase tourist attractions by using own culture and tradition, sensuous beaches, availability of dense forests and wildlife and ,landscapes for developing eco - tourism, snow clad mountains, big rivers, mountain peaks for growing adventure tourism, technological parks and science museums for developing science tourism, developing centres of pilgrimage of spiritual tourism, heritage trains and hotels for heritage tourism, increasing yoga centres for increasing yoga tourism, Ayurveda and natural health resorts for ayurveda tourism, providing world class treatment with very cheap price will encourage medical tourism, providing good sports centres and academy for sport tourism. Secondly the focus should be on to identify thrust areas for accomplishment like development is badly required in infrastructure, developing a quality product, trekking, winter sports, human resource development, facilitating private sector participation. Thirdly need to be focused on boosting tourism. It basically includes grant of export house status to the tourism sector and incentives for promoting private incentives for promoting private investment in the form of income tax exemptions, interest subsidy and reduce import duty. The Indian handicrafts particularly jewellery, carpets, leather goods, ivory and brass work are the main shopping items of foreign tourists. The estimates available through surveys indicate that nearly forty percent of the tourist expenditure on shopping is spent in such items. Domestic tourism is as old as the Indian society. According to the statistics available , domestic tourism has grown substantially during the last decade. It increased to 167 million in 1998 from just 64 million in 1990, thus registering a compound annual growth of 12.8 percent. The growth of inbound tourism since independent has been quite a lot. It was just around 17 thousand in 1951. From this level it rose to 2.36 million in 1998 . Tourism receipts on other hand have grown at a phenomenal rate of 17 percent to Rs.11,540 crore in 1998 from 7.7 crore in 1951. Tourism has emerged as an instrument of employment generation, poverty alleviation and sustainable human development. During 1998 - 99, employment generation through tourism was estimated at 14.79 million. Foreign exchange earnings from the tourism sector during 1998 - 99 were estimated at Rs. 12,011 crore. Tourism has become the second largest net foreign exchange earner for the country. The major constraints to attract more number of foreign tourist to India are non - availability of adequate infrastructure including less number of seats available in airlines, poor accessibility to various tourist spots, non availability of proper accommodation facilities and very less number of properly trained manpower staff to provide adequate help to the needy tourist. Along with these there is also exist lot of poor services like after visiting to the tourist place lot of visitors complain of poor hygienic conditions, incidents of touting and harassment of tourists in different places in different manner like rape, pick pocketing, chain snatching which contribute to poor visitors experience. Indian tourism has huge potential to generate employment and earning large amount of foreign exchange and can contribute a lot towards country's overall economic and social development. Much more have been achieved by the way of increasing the number of airline services and also to increase the number of passenger seat, increasing number of trains and their frequency and railway connectivity to major tourist destinations, four laning of roads connecting important tourist centres and increasing accommodation by adding heritage hotels to the hotel industry and motivating people to provide paying guest accommodation and also to tourist to avail the paying guest facilities. Vasai Taluka which is situated near to Mumbai in Maharashtra has become a major tourist centre in Palghar district. Geographically It is situated in between East 72.480 to East 72.540 longitudes and North 19.240 to North 19.280 latitudes. On the eastern side of Vasai there is Bhiwandi and Wada Taluka and on the western side there is presence of Arabian sea.on the northern part the river Vaitarna flows and Vasai Creek is on the south. Today Vasai is divided into two parts by the western railway. According to 2011 census the total population of Vasai Taluka was 13,42,134 out of which urban population consists of 1,221,233. North from Mumbai around 60 kilometres in Western Railway Route. The famous locations are Vasai - Virar location, which has three major stations Vasai, Virar and Nalasopara. Lately these stations and locations around got very famous as tourist spots, one day picnic and soon going to be introduced in Mumbai Tourism sectors where tourist can visit the upcoming ' Virar Vasai Tourism ' which is quite near to Mumbai city. There are number of locations which are attracting visitors to visit in Vasai Taluka and these tourist destinations are Arnala, Kalemb and Rajodi beaches, Jivdani temple on mountain and Vajreshwri temple both are present in Virar, Naigaon temple at Naigaon, Tungareshwar temple in Vasai, heritage old Jain temple at Agashi, Ganesh puri famous for hot spring, very famous Vasai Fort present in Vasai. Number of churches present in Vasai, Virar, Nalasopara and in Naigaon. Science park in Virar and large number of multiplexes and Resorts. The flow of tourism in Vasai Taluka has gone up substantially due to promotional activities carried out by tour operators, advertising done in newspapers, magazines, mouth publicity, available of good connectivity, nearness to Mumbai, infrastructural growth, availability of accommodation have pushed to a certain level in tourism activities in these part of the world..

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