AGRI-TOURISM OPPORTUNITIES IN INDIA

AGRI-TOURISM OPPORTUNITIES IN INDIA

1. Indian tourism industry is growing @10.1% - The World Tourism organization has estimated that the tourism industry is growing at the rate of 4% a year and that by the year 2010 there will be more than one billion tourists visiting various parts of the world. But the Indian tourism industry is growing at the

rate of 10% which is 2½ times more that the growth rate at global level. By introducing Agri-Tourism concept, not only present growth rate is sustained but also this value addition contributes to further growth.

2. India has entered amongst the top 10 tourist destinations list (Conde Nast Travellor – A leading European Travel Magazine) - India is already established as one of the top tourist destination in the world. Value addition by introducing novel products like Agri-tourism would only strengthen the

competitiveness of Indian tourism industry in global market.

3. India has diverse culture and geography which provides ample and unlimited scope for the growth of this business. India has diverse Agro-climatic conditions, diverse crops, people, culture, deserts, mountains, coastal systems and islands which provides scope for promotion of all season, multi location tourism products.

4. Increasing number of tourists preferring non-urban tourist spots (financial express). Hence, there is scope for promotion of non-urban tourist spots in interior villages by establishing Agri-tourism centres. But, adequate facilities and publicity are must to promote such centres.

5. Government initiatives and policies in Xth five year plan allocation has been increased from 525 crore to 2900 crores. Increased financial allocation reaffirms the government commitment. The increased financial allocation  by six times could be used for capacity building of service providers, creation

of infrastructure and publicity.

AGRI-TOURISM SITES IN INDIA

Agri Tourism offer edutainment farm tours in Malegaon Village, where guests would be given information about the cultivation of grapes, sugarcane, pomegranate, guava, mango, chikkoo, Custard apple, coconut, lime, banana, amla, jackfruit, anjeer, and many more fruits plantation, there will be visit to dairy farm, milk collection centers, goat farm, emu (like ostrich bird) farm, or get an insight of sericulture (silk producing) production of jaggery and sugar. This information farm tours will be laced with an entertainment programme in the evening. Guests will be acquainted with Marathi folklore like Bharud, Jagran Gondhal, Shekoti folk songs (all these are combinations of songs, drama, acting with music and dance). This place will try to give you nostalgic memories about the games that you might have played in your childhood like gillidanda, gotya, lagori, galori and bhavra.  Tourists can also go for the village sight seeing tour, mingle with locals, know about their administration (Gram Panchayat, visit schools know their lifestyle. This would give tourists food for thought