Practice Test 30

Tourism development has been identified as a high-priority sector in India's economic development strategy, given its demonstrated potential to generate foreign exchange earnings, create diverse employment opportunities across skill levels and geographies, preserve and promote the country's extraordinary cultural and natural heritage, and drive the development of infrastructure and services in areas that might otherwise attract insufficient investment. India's tourism potential is virtually limitless, given the country's extraordinary diversity of natural landscapes, historical monuments, living cultural traditions, religious pilgrimage sites, wildlife habitats, cuisine, and festivals that together constitute one of the richest and most varied tourism experiences available anywhere in the world. The Incredible India campaign, launched by the Ministry of Tourism in 2002 with creative positioning developed in collaboration with advertising professionals, was a landmark in the promotion of India as a premium international tourism destination, moving away from the previous emphasis on heritage monuments alone to showcase the full diversity of India's tourism experiences including its wellness traditions, cuisine, adventure sports, wildlife, and vibrant cultural festivals. The campaign has been refreshed multiple times since its launch and continues to serve as the umbrella brand for India's international tourism promotion. The e-visa facility, introduced in 2014 and progressively expanded to cover citizens of over one hundred and sixty countries, has dramatically reduced barriers to visiting India for international tourists, enabling arrival in as little as seventy-two hours after application approval without a visit to an Indian mission abroad. The Swadesh Darshan scheme has funded the development of integrated tourism circuits around thematic routes including Buddhist, tribal, coastal, Himalayan, desert, wildlife, rural, spiritual, Ramayana, and cultural themes, improving visitor infrastructure, wayfinding, hygiene, and guide services along these circuits. The PRASAD scheme has modernised amenities and infrastructure at major pilgrimage sites including Varanasi, Puri, Amritsar, Ajmer, Kedarnath, Mathura, and Dwaraka, serving the tens of millions of religious tourists who visit these sites every year and providing economic benefits to local communities through tourism spending. Homestay tourism, adventure tourism, eco-tourism, and wellness tourism have been developed as niche segments with significant growth potential, diversifying the tourism product beyond conventional monuments and offering unique experiences that are difficult to replicate elsewhere. The government's target of making India one of the top five global tourist destinations and achieving significant growth in foreign tourist arrivals and tourism receipts is supported by investment in air connectivity, hospitality infrastructure, skill development in tourism and hospitality, and safety and security measures that improve the experience and safety of visitors.