ABSTRACT:
India is experiencing an incredible growth of tourism development and heritage tourism is one of the tourism branches that have long contributed to appeal the over seas special interest tourist destination and acts as main pull factor as well as important marketing tool to attract more up market special interest tourist especially with special interests in heritage and arts, Culture. Heritage tourism has become as a potential form of alternative tourism among both international tourists as well as NRI and domestic travelers. The difference of ethnics present in India brought different local knowledge discipline ranging from its architecture, handicrafts, traditional attire, music and dance, which reflects a colorful heritage and an amalgamated rich and multi culture. There are arise of conflict in management of cultural heritage tourism in India face by tourism managers, stakeholders, governments, cultural heritage managers and local community itself. In order to maintain, conserve and preserve the resources and assets of cultural heritage in India, a system or management need to be develop that take into consideration on every issues and challenges, so that the decision making process is reliable to optimize the value of cultural heritage tourism industry in India. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview and discuss the status, issues and challenges of heritage and tourism in India.