Classification of fairs and festivals in India and their role in the development of tourism.
The diversity of fairs and festivals in Indian sub-continent is enormous. It is simply because of many religions and their participation to make a country, India. These fairs and festivals have their own charm to attract tourists and thus they made their position in world tourism calendar. India with her 5000 years culture and heritage nourishes these fairs and festivals to depth, importance and colour.
Fairs and festivals in India can be divided in three categories.
Religious fairs and festivals: - religious and regional diversity allow Indians to have different festivals like dusshera, diwali, Id, Christmas etc.
Seculer or Social festivals:- from Indian point of view we can keef Independence Day, Republic Day, Book fair etc in this category.
Promotional festivals: - few festivals have been designed keeping the interest of attracting tourists like mango festivals, desert festivals, kite festivals etc.
Beside these three categories of fairs and festivals there are few more festivals in India which can be defined as cultural festivals. Few examples of this type are Konark Dance Festivals, Mahabalipuram Dance Festival, and Tansen Festival of Gwalior etc. Department of Tourism, Govt of India and ITDC are working together to promote these festivals all over the world and nowadays we can see participation of foreign tourists in these festivals are increasing.
Tourism in India has a very close relation with the festivals. Till date the participation of domestic tourist was the main crowd in these festivals but now the promotional efforts by the national tourism organizations and different programs like Visit India or Incredible India are attracting a major amount of foreign tourist. DoT started different zonal cultural centers allover the country in 1998 and these centers are arranging cultural shows, light and sound shows, handicraft shops etc to promote regional fairs like tribal fairs. And this activity is not only promoting the culture but also bringing small places like Jagdalpur or Joygaon in world tourism map. And thus Govt. of India also earning good amount of FOREX.