TRANSPORT AND
TOURISM
A transport system acts as a
bridge between places of tourist origin and destination.
It opens out a region by providing
an access to its tourist places.
In its absence, the resource potential for tourism i.e. attractions and amenities,
can’t be of any benefit.
We cannot talk of the planning of tourism in an area
without orgnising its transport system. The system consists of a network of routes or means of transport and the modes of transport.
The former includes air, sea or water routes Inland routes include roads or the motorways and the rail transport.
The modes of transport refer to aircraft, ships, steamers, cars, taxies, luxury coaches, buses and the railway trains.
Taxies, cars, motor like autorickshaws,
tangas, mopeds, bicycles and trams are particularly important as items of local
transport. It is meant to carry travellers from airports, bus-stands or railway
stations to hotels and tourist sites within a city.
At high altitude places in tourist
areas, you may come across ropeways and electric driven trollies, pony or tonga
riding and sailing boats.
Tourism is most attractive if a country has all possible types of alternative transport facilities both in its major and minor networks. Trunk routes are inter-state routes forming the national network.
They provide linkages between main transport hubs of India.
The connections between the trunk routes and the nodal towns within
a tourist region are mostly managed by regional transport authority. It is a minor
network at the regional level. Private travel organisations have a greater role at
the lowest level to look after the transport needs of tourists within the smallest
local network. A tourist requires not just an access to a tourist region but also
an easy access in terms of cost, time and level of comforts. For instance,
whenever an easy connection is lost for area of high altitude or of bad weather,
alternative mode of transport must be at hand for a tourist.
The provisions are favourable if there are easy connections also between different
modes of transport from one route to another; and between the major and minor places of tourist interest.
Now-a-days, it is the capacity of a transport system which determines the size of tourist traffic, the increase or decrease in the pace of tourist flows.
Beside an increase in the capacity of transport system, the provision of comfortable seats, reasonably high speeds and discounts in the rail, road and air fares are becoming incentives.
They further go to increase the tourist traffic, in turn ploughing in greater revenue. It is estimated that the tourists pass on their income to us by spending around 40% of their total expenditure on travelalone.
