Harnessing Tourism potential for pilgrimage town in hilly area: a case of Mahur, district nanded, Maharashtra

Abstract

This study is focused on Harnessing tourism potential for pilgrimage town in hilly area, a case of Mahur, it is one of the Maha-Shaktipeetha in india, but lack of infrastructure, facilities, connectivity & accessibility for various important tourist spots, that increases tourist footfall in mahur as compare to other shaktipeethas in Maharashtra. The foremost attraction of mahur is its impressive temple, it is situated at a height range of 470 to 570 m from MSL, Only to the pilgrimage and heritage destinations comes picturesque beauty of nature in and around the study region in the form of forest, wildlife sanctuaries, resources such rare medicinal plants, and hill stations, etc. These areas provide visitors of all types, including adventure tourists, a wealth of sightseeing, enjoyment, and leisure activities. It is a multi-destination with a diverse range of tourist attractions. Its offers some of rarest tourism with wide ecological range and diversity and most of the people attracts towards tourist place for many reasons including mountain destinations, landscapes, climate, clean air, heritage, local history and specially the attachment towards Divine places, which can show’s the potential of tourism industry, the development potential of tourism scenic spots and would review the ideas from five key parameters of tourism spots, Historic & Heritage value, Locational value, Natural value and most important parameter is Connectivity &. Accessibility, so as to comprehend the current research status and discuss the prospects of the evaluation of tourism destinations. Due to its varied variety of attractions, one of the primary variables linked to successful tourism, this research confirms that Mahur Shaktipeeth and its surrounding regions are suited for tourist growth. Local communities might benefit economically from the infrastructure and services supplied for tourist-related activities, considerably increasing the quality of life in an areas where such infrastructure is now lacking. This study is done to identifypotential tourism spots & resources from tourist attraction & revenue generation perspective, to give opportunities to local peoples, because most of the people in the study area depends on farming but the topography of the area is hilly due to which productivity of soil is very less, these are the reasons of economical backwardness of that area. Hill tourism is major research concern for any region as compared to other forms of tourism, it is very important to know contribution of tourism in job creation and development of the region through it. Thus, the paper aims to explore tourism potentials for local economic development, it uses evaluation criteria to identify potential tourism spots, in order to determine suitability and likelihood of success if development does take place. The conclusions of the study are mostly based on qualitative methods such as interviews and field observations. Some of the data was extracted from maps of the research region using quantitative techniques. The research shows that Mahur has a lot of tourist p otential in all five tourism categories studied, especially when it comes to diversification.The findings show that the studied region lacks essential infrastructure. The absence of accessible access is a key stumbling block to future tourism activity. The primary entrance road is small and twisting, with parking issues, but existing alternate roads might be repaired and marked to allow visitors to access the region. The absence of infrastructure, along with cumbersome rules and procedures, has restricted the amount to which the local community tourism has been able to benefit from the growth and investment possibilities that a robust tourism business may potentially give. The study's findings show that Mahur is the good spot for tourist growth because of its varied variety of attractions, which is one of the most important aspects of successful tourism. Tourists are drawn to a location because of its variety of attractions. There is no need to provide facilities and services if there are no attractions. Potential tourist-related facilities and services might be used by the local people, considerably increasing the study area's quality of life and economic development, which now lacks such infrastructure.