A GEOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF FAIRS AND FESTIVALS IN PUNE DISTRICT

Abstract

Today, tourism is one of the largest and dynamically developing sectors newlineof external economic activities. It has high growth and development rates and newlineconsiderable volumes of foreign currency inflows.Infrastructure development newlineand introduction of new management and educational experience actively newlineaffect various sectors of economy, which positively contributes to the social newlineand economic development of the country as a whole. newlineTourism has emerged as the fastest rising industry in the world. It accounts newlinefor 7 % of capital investment and about 20 million people around the globe are newlineemployed in this industry. Now it is one of the sectors sustaining to national newlineeconomy. Some countries like Singapore, Hongkong, Switzerland etc. have newlinetourism based economy. Therefore it is very important. newlineThe term tourism is defined in the Webster s Dictionary as the newline Journey from place to place for excursion and sightseeing purposes . It means newlinethat in order to qualify an activity as tourism people have to move from place newlineto place individually or in groups, and enjoy the special sights and leisure newlineoffered by those places. The word tourism or tourist is related to the word newline tour which is derived from the Latin word tornus . Hunzinker and Krapt newline(1942) defined tourism as The travel and stay of non-residents, in so far as newlinethey do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected to any earning newlineactivity . This definition distinguished tourism from migration and made the newlineassumption that both travel and stay are necessary for tourism. World Tourism newlineOrganization devised the following definition for tourism: Tourism comprises newlinethe activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual newlineenvironment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business or newlineother purposes . newline