OPPORTUNITIES AND STATUS OF TOURISM ACTIVITY IN JUNNAR TEHSIL FOR RURAL UPLIFTMENT

Tourism is a major economic sector that deploys natural and man-made resources. Junnar Tehsil has a wide range of tourist attractions. It is needed to be integrated with pilgrimage and agro-tourism for tourism promotion with the sense of environment conservation and overall development of the Tehsil. The identification of tourism potential and supportive development may cause the multi-tier effect of rural development which was dreamed by Mahatma Gandhi. His thought was provoking and it inspired the search for new assets for rural development so that employment opportunities would be available in rural areas. The migration flow of labour would be from urban to rural areas instead of rural to urban. The tourism industry is an upcoming sector which is responsible for generating value of resources and in turn helping the rural development. The tourism industry will also help to reduce regional imbalance by overcoming the gap between urban and rural as well as the rich and poor by generating new assets for economic opportunities. The Junnar Tehsil is tremendously affected by the expansion of the tourism industry. Thus, the government has declared the Junnar as tourism tehsil on 9th January 2018 and made a tourism development plan for the tehsil. The present investigation proposes to assess the requirement and development of tourism activity in Junnar Tehsil as well as potentials of tourism activity for rural development. For that purpose the data is collected from primary and secondary sources and wisely interpreted with specific evidences to conclude the relationship of tourism and rural development in Junnar Tehsil of Pune district.