Tourism and economic developement policy - Essay Example

ensive and extensive research article essentially and fundamentally delves deep into the advantages and challenges of the bottom up approach to tourism development in influencing and strengthening the economic growth of the region. The historical and geographic context of tourism development is also traversed in this study, consequently with in depth research into the socioeconomic and governmental involvement and significance and the overall efficacy and benefit of sustainable tourism. In this context the study is concentrated on one of the most promising emerging economies – India specifically its state of West Bengal.

Dating back to the Roman Empire, the rich and the prosperous community only could afford to visit places to enrich experiences, to splurge in luxury and leisure, Baiae being one such seashore vacation place. “Tourism” was coined in 1811 and “tourist” by 1840. Whereas in 1936 the “tourists” were elaborately demarcated by the then ‘League of Nations’ as one journeying outside of country for a minimum of twenty-four hours – which was modified by the United Nations at the end of World War II in 1945 and conceived tourism as which expanded for the time period of maximum six months.

The concept of eco-tourism was initiated in 1989. In the present scenario tourism is deemed to be the most rapidly evolving and vastly expanding global business with an approximate growth rate of 4 percent to 5 per cent per annum which is responsible for 10% of global gross domestic product (WTO). The advanced as well as emerging nations have attracted an enormous influx of foreign tourists with an estimate of 760 million in 2004 and another 1.6 billion anticipated by the World Tourism Organization (WTO 2005a) by the year 2020.

With globalization and open-door policies being implemented world wide, more and more emerging and advancing nations are becoming the hot tourists’ hot attractions since 1950 at which time there was a record influx of 25 million