Tourism and History

• Tourism becomes a major source of their livelihood.
• The tradition of travelling is quite old in India with people travelling for various reasons like pilgrimage, going to local fairs and festivals, in search of a renowned teacher and good education, for trade, etc.
• From ancient times people took to travelling for various reasons.
• Gautam Buddha travelled to several cities in ancient India for preaching.
• Buddhist monks were ordained not to stay at one place but keep travelling continuously to various places.
• Jain monks, sadhus also used to travel constantly.
• Yuan Shwang, the Chinese monk travelled to India in 630 C.E.
• In the medieval period Saint Namdev, Saint Eknath, Guru Nanak, Ramdas Swami travelled extensively in India.
• Tourism can be defined as travelling to visit places in distant regions for a specific purpose.
• Thomas Cook is known as the first European traveller/discoverer.
• Benjamin of Tudela travelled to France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Persia, India and China during the period of 1159-1173 C.E.
• Marco Polo, the Italian traveller of the 13th century introduced Asia, especially China to Europe.
• Ibn Batuta, the traveller of the 14th century took the world on a virtual travel of the Islamic world with his travel accounts.
• Gerardus Mercator, of 16th century was a cartographer known for creating a world map and globe of the earth.
• Thomas Cook organised a trip by railway from Leicester to Loughborough for about 600 people.
• Agro-tourism, also known as agri-tourism, is a type of tourism that involves visiting farms and rural areas for leisure purposes.
• Sports tourism was developed in the 20th century and involves attending various sports events on international, national, and state levels.
• Taxi drivers in India should be trained to converse in more than one languages and may also be trained as tourist guides.
• Gharapuri Caves are a tourist site in India and books about the site should be available in various languages.
• People often travel for special reasons and events, which is known as tourism based on special events.
• Health tourism involves travelling to India from the western countries due to the comparatively cheaper and good standard health services and facilities.
• Religious tourism involves travelling to places associated with religious mythologies and traditions.
• Collect pictures and photos of the cultural, natural, and mixed heritage sites in India, with the help of internet.
• Indian farmers are also visiting faraway places like agricultural research centres, agricultural universities, and countries like Israel where experimentation in advanced technology of agriculture is carried out.
• Geographic tourism involves visiting places to observe special geographic features of a region, including natural and animal sanctuaries, beaches, unique geographical wonders, etc.
• Thomas Cook was successful in organising a round trip of Europe.
• Tourism has become an independent field of local, interstate, national and international business.
• The desire to visit national and international monuments, places of historical importance and natural beauty, ancient centres known for handicrafts, pilgrim centres, industrial centres and sites of various developmental projects, etc. promotes tourism.
• Tourists from all over the world wish to visit natural and manmade sites, which offer a delightful and awe inspiring experience.
• Places like snow-capped peaks, beaches, pristine jungles, which were neglected previously, became important locations of tourist interests.
• India has a rich history that can be traced back to many millenniums.
• Heritage Walks can be organised as an organised group activity and have gained popularity in many countries.
• Every region of India is full of historical places from ancient, medieval and modern period.
• The country which is a tourist destination begins to receive revenue even before a tourist arrives at the airport of that country.
• Bhilar is a village near Mahabaleshwar, which boasts of natural beauty and sweetness of strawberry.
• Markets in the vicinity of a tourist centre grow along with the development of a tourist centre.
• Heritage walks are also organised regularly in the cities of Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra.
• The corporation has provided facilities of tourist hotels at 47 places.
• The tourist spends for his travel, stay in hotels, food, and other expenses.
• Heritage walks can encourage people to support projects like conservation and preservation of historical monuments, to collect authentic information about them and to publish it through various media.