Tourism in India and gender concerns

Tourism is one of the world's largest and fastest growing industries. In many countries it acts as an engine for development through foreign exchange earnings and the creation of direct and indirect employment. Tourism in India is a large industry. The World Travel and Tourism Council calculated that tourism generated $121 billion or 6.4% of the nation's GDP in 2011. It was responsible for 39,3 million jobs, 7.9% of its total employment. The GDP of the tourism sector has expanded 229% between 1990 and 2011. The tourism sector definitely provides various entry points for women's employment and opportunities for creating self-employment in small and medium sized income generating activities, thus creating paths towards the elimination of poverty of women and local communities in developing countries. Women's potential to succeed in tourism often goes unrealized, not due to the lack of potential, but rather due to the lack of opportunities. In any country safety of women has a great impact on prosperity of tourism industry. In this regard the paper tries to discuss the impact of Nirbhya incident followed by brutal attacks on foreign female travelers on tourism industry.