TOURIST POTENTIALS AND DEVELOPMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE OF HILL STATIONS IN TAMILNADU – A STUDY Synopsis submitted to Madurai Kamaraj University for the award of the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY Submitted by Ms. AMUDHA Register No: P4029 Under the Guidance of Dr. S. PUSHPALATHA, M.A., Ph.D. Assistant Professor & Head (i/c) DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY (University with Potential for Excellence) MADURAI – 625 021 AUGUST 2019 Tourist Potentials and Development of Infrastructures with Special Reference of Hill Stations in Tamil Nadu – A Study SYNOPSIS Indians undertake journey to various places of interest either for gratification or for business. Tourism is concerned with temporary travelling of people for a few days to weeks with the intension of bringing a joyful mood. The place be visited in tourism may be relatively undisturbed natural habitat, which is ideal for studying, admiring and enjoying the sceneries of wild plants and animals, or areas well-manipulated with human efforts such as industries, citadels, historical monuments, botanical gardens and zoos. Biosphere reserves, mangroves, coral reefs, deserts, mountains, forests, flora and fauna, seas, lakes, rivers, caves, water-falls, business establishments, temples, wonders of the World, and others are the centres of attraction for tourists who have visited there from faraway regions of the country or abroad. Truly speaking, tourism as a whole is a service industry that does not produce goods of any kind but extends all sorts of services to various classes of tourists and thereby integrating several thousands of people from different nations together under one roof, for the generation of joy in a place far away from their home. In modern era, tourism has become a huge business when the activities of Europeans could result in industrial revolution and the actual British system of holidays at weekends were announced for people worked in factories and Government for refreshing their frame of mind to vitalize their potential for incessant productive works, whatever it is. It started to grow further when majority of people earned adequate amount of money which enabled them to enjoy opulence, serenity and safekeeping, which were not doable some time ago before the industrial revolution, and it has become the past growing industry when many people have attained higher living standards to allocate some proportion of their income for enjoying the weekends and summer holidays. This pleasant business 1 has attained the pristine height in recent years due to the advent of modern convey vehicles equipped with ultramodern technologies for making the travels more easy and enjoyable by tourists and due to the dawn of sophisticated communication systems that can enable the tourists to contact with a residential home for booking a room and to make communications with anybody wherever in the world, and also due to adequate infrastructures in the place of visit to put out-of-the-way the risks of all kinds while touring in the place. Indian Tourism - A Historical Background In the long past, starting from 3rd Century C.E., many people of India had undertaken tours to the Himalayas with the intension of worshipping the Lord Kailasanath who is believed to be the God almighty to people who had reverenced Him as per sayings of the scriptures, which is of course for the purpose of pilgrimage that required severe penance to get the blessing of the God, but in the beginning of 8th Century C.E. there began a business tradition among the people that it would be an important duty of merchants to earn money through the sale of commodities to people of other cities or countries, as a consequence of which the purpose of travelling was initially diverted from the pilgrimage to trade reasons and the objective of travelling had been shifted from the God’s blessing to pleasure-seeking sightseeing. The industrial revolution that produced valuable goods using machineries had slightly shifted the sale of natural commodities to sale of quality industrial products while advent of transport vehicles made their transportation very easy and quick through roads or rail or sea. These two events are associated with modernization by the efforts of Europeans in India. While analyzing the tourism, one can look basically at three kinds of tourisms – religion oriented tourism, trade oriented tourism and pleasure oriented tourism. 2 Religion Oriented Tourism Not only in India but also in overseas countries, middle and old-age people undergo some tours to hallowed shrines in far-off localities for the purpose of worshipping the idols of deities to whom they like to render their offerings, and it is realized that such pilgrimages would have strengthened the affinity of people towards the God and revitalized the religious spirits among the devotees as well as ordinary people residing in close proximity. In India also similar things are happening from ancient time to present day. This kind of travel shows their affinity towards religion and their god. This is popularly known as pilgrim tour. Trade Oriented Tourism It is hard to conclude at what point of time in the history trade oriented tourism appeared in India because the scholars have different opinions about this, but it is true that most early travels were actually associated with trade and commerce as per the records of what went before in history. Egyptians, Greeks, Arabs and Romans had commercial contacts with the Indian Sub Continent previous to the Indus Valley Civilisation. Later Europeans emerged as great traders in modern era. Hence, trade oriented travel introduced various types of tours. In this type of tourism, pleasure seeking is of secondary importance while money-making is the prime goal of travelling. Pleasure Oriented Tourism In this type of tourism, pleasure seeking is of primary importance while the money-making and worshipping the deity of interest are of secondary importance. This type of tourism in Tamil Nadu was, of course, initiated by Europeans, who had settled in the Madras Presidency at the beginning of the modern era, for invigorating their mood. The Europeans travelled to the chosen hill stations during the weekends and warm summer to tide them over the hot weather; following this, 3 the moneyed native people started to take attempts to spend their leisure times in the hill stations for the sense of satisfaction. The Europeans had broadcasted the touristic values of the hill stations among the foreigners by writing tourist guides and travel reports relating to their biography and in the meantime they would have built up adequate infrastructures such as roads for easy access to these hill stations and staying facilities. In the later phase of tourism development, the Government took control over the tourism industry and developed vital infrastructures to motivate the people for visiting these destinations for sightseeing, and to facilitate trouble-free access to these places. This pleasure seeking tourism essentially involves three basic components, namely transport, location and accommodation. These are all considered as allied industries which are also growing out of tourism industry. Pleasure seeking tourism plays a vital role in this sector. Tourism in India While the growth of world tourism depends on the international tourists who travel from country to country, the tourism growth of India depends on the influx of overseas travelers and domestic tourists but away from the tourist location of interests. The migration of international travelers from country to country for sightseeing has been showing a decadal growth since 1951when the travel of people to any country for going to places of interest was legally accepted at international level. This highly expanding industry has been sprawling in all directions from east to west, north to south and vice versa, which seems to be one of the world’s largest industries strengthening the world economy. While encouraging the tourists to enjoy the ethnical beauty of tourist spots and amenities found therein, this business industry generates jobs for about 20.45 million people who directly involve in the tourism activities. Further, millions of native people are indirectly concerned with the tourism business for their employment and others. 4 Tourism in Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India consisting of 35 districts, is bounded on the East by Bay of Bengal, in the South by Indian Ocean, in the West by Kerala and in the North by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states. As a broad stretch of land, it covers a total area of 1, 30, 058 sq.km which extends from 8o 5' to 13o 35' Northern Latitude and from 76o 15' to 80o 20' in the Eastern Longitude. This is one of the most fascinating day-tripper destinations known for its exceptional scenic beauty and unique and rich cultural heritage dominated by Tamil people who have followed typical Dravidian culture and traditions for several centuries. Its age old cultural heritage and diverse habitats attract millions of overseas and domestic travelers to visit the destinations, so that tourism has flourished in this region right from the beginning. Climate and Pleasant Weather In the climatic viewpoint, Tamil Nadu is a warm humid state receiving the maximum rainfall during the North East Monsoon in the months of October- December and the cool winter is not so intense in most areas, except the Nigiris where the temperature may fall down below the freezing point in some years, as it is located in the tropical belt that supports the maximum habitat diversity as well as the diversity of wild plants and animals, which are actually what the international tourists from cold countries want to look at for their enjoyment during their visits. In summer, owing to intense heating, the high temperature steepens pressure gradient over the state, as a consequence of which low atmospheric pressure develops in the North West region and attracts the cool wind from the Indian Ocean, leading to occasional rainfalls in the summer.